An elite Brooklyn private school long dogged by accusations that its football coach molested his players was slapped yesterday with a federal lawsuit by seven alumni alleging it covered up the sexual abuse for decades.
The suit, filed in Brooklyn federal court, accuses the current and former headmasters of Poly Prep Country Day School in Dyker Heights of having known that the football coach, Philip Foglietta, abused “dozens, if not hundreds” of boys.
“Poly Prep had . . . knowledge of Foglietta’s sexual abuse of numerous boys at or near Poly Prep, but condoned and facilitated Foglietta’s criminal behavior because he was a highly successful football coach and instrumental in raising substantial revenue for the school,” the suit alleges.
Accusations against Poly Prep first surfaced in 2005, when one alumnus, John Paggioli, sued the school. That suit was tossed because the state’s statute of limitations — five years from the date the victim turns 18 — had passed.
In the current suit, a civil RICO action, the plaintiffs — five named and two John Does — are claiming the school engaged in a conspiracy for some four decades to quash complaints by victims.
The victims all suffer long-lasting effects from the abuse, the suit claims.
One plaintiff, 1982 graduate James Zimmerman, , claims he was so turned off from football by his experiences that he told Colgate University he wouldn’t play, prompting the upstate school to revoke his admission there.
The school did not return a message left with a secretary.
Mob lawyer, Bruce Cutler who attended the school in the 1960s, says he believes Foglietta, who died in 1998, was innocent.
“When I first heard [about the suit] I was apoplectic,” Cutler said.
“It just tears me up because Coach Foglietta is gone and there’s nobody around to defend him.”
The lawyer representing the plaintiffs, Kevin Mulhearn, declined comment except to say, “The allegations in the lawsuit speak for themselves.”
Poly Prep all but admitted that Foglietta was a serial molester, in a 2002 letter to alumni.
“We have recently received credible allegations that such abuse occurred at Poly Prep more than 20 years ago by a faculty member/coach, who is now deceased,” the letter read, promising a thorough investigation.
But even that admission and its false promise of a probe was just more obfuscation, the suit alleges.
“What was the result?” asked another plaintiff, lawyer Philip Culhane in an August letter to Poly Prep. “Is there a written report detailing the investigations made?”