Politics
Former Prep School Baseball Coach Charged With Sex Crimes Against Minors
Nicolas Morton, who worked for the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn, made boys run to exhaustion unless they exposed themselves to him, prosecutors said.
A former admissions officer and baseball coach at the Packer Collegiate Institute, a Brooklyn Heights private school, was charged on Thursday in what prosecutors said was the sexual abuse of several children who played on his teams.
The teacher, Nicolas Morton, 31, “consistently made sexual comments, repeatedly insisted that players show him their genitalia and touched their intimate parts on several occasions,” according to prosecutors with the Brooklyn district attorney’s office. At times, he refused to let the boys stop doing “difficult conditioning exercises unless they exposed themselves to him,” prosecutors said.
The seven children Mr. Morton is accused of abusing ranged in age from 12 to 14, prosecutors said, and the alleged conduct occurred mostly in Packer’s gym and at several Brooklyn ball fields, beginning in early 2023 and continuing through this summer. In addition to the school team, Mr. Morton coached a travel squad.
“Coaches are entrusted with nurturing young minds and talents, not exploiting them for personal gratification,” said Eric Gonzalez, the district attorney. “The disturbing details of this case highlight the lasting damage such behavior inflicts on vulnerable youth.”
Mr. Morton is facing a 20-count indictment that includes charges of second-degree course of sexual conduct against a child, as well as third- and first-degree sexual abuse and 13 counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
He pleaded not guilty in a hearing Thursday before Justice Donald Leo. Throughout the session, Mr. Morton, who was wearing a blue checked shirt, stood beside his lawyer and stared down at the table in front of him. His mother and other relatives sat in the gallery, quietly watching.
