Sometimes, there’s a calm between storms.
The Latin Post is reporting that since Monday, when Megan Mahoney was charged with 30 counts of statutory rape, both Mahoney and attorney Eric Nelson have made no public comments, nor has Moore Catholic High School. Mahoney is expected back in court on December 2.
Mahoney, 24, was arrested on Monday and charged with 30 counts of statutory rape for having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old male student, according to the Staten Island Advance . Their relationship began in October 31, 2013, and ended on January 9.
According to court documents, Mahoney, one of Moore Catholic’s gym teachers and assistant basketball coaches, had sex with the 16-year-old at least twice a week. She has also been charged with four counts of criminal sexual act in the third degree for engaging the boy in oral sex and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.
According to the New York Post , the illicit affair came to light after the boy’s ex-girlfriend saw the couple together at a pizzeria and then called the police. When the Post interviewed him, the teenager did not know Mahoney had been arrested.
“I don’t really know how I feel about it,” he said.
The New York Post has also reported that Moore Catholic High School has had more than one illicit teacher-student affair which school authorities knew of and did little to stop. Moore Catholic, a top Staten Island institution founded by nuns in 1962, charges an annual tuition of $8000.
Besides the claims about Mahoney, Richard Postiglione, Moore’s athletic director and chief operating officer, failed to report other faculty-student affairs to authorities beginning as early as 2006, though he and the principal were told of the relationships.
The victim, whose name is being withheld by The Post , said he and Mahoney engaged in multiple trysts in her car, beginning last fall, after she approached him in the gym and offered to coach him in basketball. Though Mahoney initially denied any sexual relations, she eventually admitted to the relationship and resigned her position as coach and teacher.
Postiglione, who had originally stated he was unaware of the relationship, ordered Mahoney to end the affair, then did not report Mahoney’s involvement with the student to the proper authorities.
The school sources claimed Mahoney bedded another 16-year-old boy in 2012, but nothing was done about that relationship. School Board Chair Anthony Ferreri said that claim against Mahoney was “unsubstantiated,” and that no allegations were ever raised against the coach.
Around 2006 or 2007, they said, another female coach under Postiglione was reported sleeping with a female student.
“Rich knew about it in the first year and let it continue for four more years,” the source said. He forced the coach to sign “an agreement… to stop.”
But the relationship continued, and when the affair came to light, the coach eventually resigned under pressure, the school sources said.
Postiglione also tried to participate in the sexual shenanigans. The married Postiglione, 57, allegedly tried to get in on the sexual free-for-all by attempting to seduce Sabrina Panfilo, the former development director at Moore, allegedly touching her buttocks and insisting that she sit on his lap, according to a complaint Panfilo filed with the state.
He told her that she had “a dancer’s body,” they were “soul mates,” and he was in love with her, and he once barged into her office, slammed his hands on her desk, and said, “Let’s have an affair,” according to Panfilo’s complaint to the Division of Human Rights.
While proposing a romantic getaway, Postiglione offered that Panfilo’s infant son could be watched by Mahoney, “a woman who has been alleged to have engaged in sexual relations with a minor at the school,” the complaint says.
Panfilo told The Post she was fired in “retaliation because I rejected his sexual advances and made a formal complaint to the board.”
All is quiet now, but when this all comes to light in a court of law, sparks are sure to fly.
[Image courtesy of Staten Island Advance/Hilton Flores]