NYC private school's ex-baseball coach arrested for sexually abusing 7 boys, aged 12 to 14

31-year-old ex-baseball coach at NYC private school, who is also an alumnus there, has been accused of sexually abusing players as young as 12 years old.

Nicolas Morton, a former baseball coach at a Brooklyn private school, was accused on Thursday, October 24, of sexually abusing seven underage boys aged 12 to 14 and threatening to drop them from the team if they didn't comply with his demands of exposing themselves.

Nicolas Morton's official profile on the official athletic website of the Washington & Jefferson presidents.(gopresidents.com)

According to a 20-count sex crime indictment against the 31-year-old man who previously worked at Packer Collegiate Institute, Morton groped at least three boys' genitals. Details from the document against him in the Brooklyn Supreme Court underscore that young kids, including one under 13, were determined to expose their coach. All boys were members of the disgraced coach's private travel team, NYC Freedom Baseball, which enlisted students from Packer and other schools.

Brooklyn District Attorney's special victims bureau's Gwen Barnes told a judge during the arraignment scheduled for Thursday that the boys “bravely came forward and stood up for themselves and each other,” as per The New York Post.

What has the ex-baseball coach at NYC school been charged for?

Barnes further listed an expansive roster of accusations against the man, who allegedly commenced his predatory actions on Brooklyn baseball fields, including the one at Packer Collegiate K-12 school in Brooklyn Heights. He initially nonchalantly extended twisted requests to the players and subjected them to rigorous workout regimes as an excuse to pervertedly ogle them. Barnes also accused him of grooming the students by “speaking about sex and masturbation and other graphic topics.”

He eventually doubled down on his questionable actions and started threatening them that they wouldn’t make the team “when they didn’t show their pubic hair.” The prosecutor also said that he would sometimes even “insist on seeing their penises.” Ultimately, the kids would sometimes submit to his unwarranted demands with no alternatives in sight. The DA office also cited an alleged instance when Morton perversely grazed or tickled a player’s butt while embracing him.

More of Morton’s disturbing advances mentioned during the Brooklyn courtroom hearing included him allegedly groping his players above and below their clothes but over their underwear. Barnes noted that some of the students who experienced these leery advances started playing in his team at the young age of 11. Moreover, Barnes maintained that the perverted coach even pushed his students to let him touch their genitals. There was reportedly at least one occasion when he did so by reaching up the student’s shorts. Players' parents notably fear that there may be more victims of Morton’s scheme. They are reportedly also perturbed by the thought of school officials being privy to his discomfiting conduct.

More about Nicolas Morton

Meanwhile, Robert Georges, a high-profile defence lawyer, is backing Morton in the proceedings. He attempted to persuade Justice Donald Leo to release his client without bail. The judge overlooked his demands and set the former coach’s bail at $75,000. Nevertheless, while trying to compel the judge to look the other way, Georges said that Morton “comes from a law enforcement family.” Some of his cousins are in the Nassau Police Department and the NYPD’s 111 precinct in Bayside, Queens.

Morton, who worked at Packer Collegiate Institute for a $60,000 annual salary, was ultimately fired in August. At the time, administrators contacted parents via email about dropping him. The unsettling email noted that Morton was possibly perpetuating a pattern of inappropriate behaviour and interactions with players affiliated with his private travel baseball team, which included Packer and non-Packer athletes alike. Morton is himself an alumnus of the same institute and a star player on the school’s baseball team.

Charges against the creepy coach include sex abuse, sexual conduct with a child under 13 years old to forcibly touching their intimate parts. The next hearing has been scheduled for December 13, 2024.