Principal Accused In Text, Photo Scandal Resigns

RIVERHEAD, NY — A Riverhead High School principal accused of sending "thousands" of explicit texts and photos to a student resigned this week.

At an Aug. 27 meeting of the Riverhead Central School District's Board of Education, the board voted to accept the resignation of former Riverhead High School Principal Charles Regan, effective Sept. 27.

Board President Gregory Meyer read a statement saying that there were several "significant' reasons for the board to accept that resignation.

"Paramount to the board’s decision is the desire to have Mr. Regan removed from the district’s payroll as soon as possible, and have his employment status with the district ended," he said.

Currently, the formal disciplinary process pertaining to Regan is underway, with hearing dates currently scheduled for September and October, and the hearing could extend into November, Meyer said. Given that timeline, it is anticipated that a decision would be rendered by the hearing officer in and about January, 2020, he said.

"During that intervening time period, Mr. Regan would continue to receive his salary. By accepting his resignation, which is effective September 27, 2019, the district saves significant expenses in salary costs and legal fees. It is estimated that the savings could exceed $100,000. In addition, by accepting the resignation, the district receives a certain result; namely, that Mr. Regan is no longer an employee of the district," Meyer said ."While the evidence against Mr. Regan is overwhelming, and disturbing, anything can happen when a decision is left in the hands of a single hearing officer."

Finally, Meyer said, accepting Regan’s resignation will have no bearing on the separate process being conducted in the State Education Department concerning his certifications as a teacher and administrator. The district, he said, has fully cooperated with the State Education Department in the required legal process to have his certifications removed, and the district will continue to cooperate in that process — and will strongly lobby the State Education Department to make this a top priority, he said.

"We share in the community’s disgust over Mr. Regan’s conduct, which has been played out in the media. Tonight, the board takes the most expeditious step available to it to permanently sever that relationship," Meyer said.

According to a notice of claim filed on May 6, high school senior Anastasia Stapon, from January until the present, was sent thousands of explicit texts and photos by Regan.

"Anastasia is an 18-year old student and athlete at Riverhead High School. She has been destroyed. Her principal, who had been her mentor, her hero, is in fact just a pervert who used his power over her to ensnare her in his dirty sexual traps," a statement by Stapon's attorney Ray said. "Charles Regan learned that she is an adopted child from Russia who, in her senior year, suffered deep depression and turned to weed and alcohol. She was especially defenseless, a sitting target for a predator."

According to Ray, "pretending to counsel her, sexual deviant Regan deluded her into complete dependence, isolating her from her family, friends and school counselor," moving her sister out of the district to Sagamore. "He led Anastasia astray into sexual fantasies. . .urging her to have sex with him," Ray said. "He sent her sexually charged pictures of him undressed, all the while deluding her into the passionate belief that he loved her. . .Then he sexually assaulted her in his office during school. He pulled her by the neck into his embrace and shoved his tongue into her mouth."

The suit against Regan, the district, the superintendent and the board of education, is seeking damages of $10 million.

"I thought he was trying to support me and get me to that better place because that's what he told me for a very long time," Stapon said of Regan during a press conference, according to a New York Post report. "And then during my spring break, it got definitely a lot more hot and heavier."

The notice of claim also alleges that Regan, 48, had a history "as a pervert and child seducer" in his former position at the Eastport South Manor School District — and made "homicidal threats" to students who showed an interest in Stapon.

"He's a sexual predator; he groomed this little girl," Ray said. "This guy saw a mark in her because she was depressed and he pretended he was going to help her but in reality he used it to groom her for sexual perversion."

Ray shared numerous sexually explicit texts and photos of Regan, shown half-clothed, one with just a pink towel draped over himself, with Patch.

Regan, Ray added, sent thousands of texts to the teen in a single month and used to meet with her in his office daily "in 45-minute clips. He made her very co-dependent," he said.

Regan, who is married with two children, had initially been "administratively reassigned," Riverhead Superintendent Aurelia Henriquez said in a statement on the district's website.

"Mr. Regan will not be at the high school pending the investigation. In the interim, Assistant Principal Sean O'Hara will serve as acting principal," the statement said.

Henriquez said the district was "prohibited from sharing further details" on the allegations made against Regan, who made $187,693 a year as principal.

An attorney for Regan could not be reached for comment.

This week, Ray said the former principal's resignation "is a symbol of Regan's continuous control. He should have resigned immediately but he collected a salary plus benefit and pension additions since late April and early May, when he should have stepped down."

He added: "The superintendent's quote [in the media} saying it was the earliest date he would agree to means he was calling the shots."

State education law, he said, dictates that "the school has the authority any time to suspend someone immediately without pay or hold an immediate hearing. They could have had one. They failed to do it. Instead, taxpayers were essentially subsidizing this fellow for another four months without any ill consequences. It's absurd."

In May, a second woman came forward and claimed that she was sexually assaulted by Regan, according to Ray.

Ray sent a release out saying that Regan, who was administratively reassigned after explosive charges that he sent thousands of "sexually charged" texts, as well as half-naked photos, to a student, before he sexually assaulted her in his office, was also accused of sexually assaulted a 16-year old student at the Eastport-South Manor School District while employed there 17 years ago.

"Sex predator Principal Charles Regan has long sexually preyed upon students and others in a variety of Long Island public schools with the knowledge and toleration of responsible school professionals," Ray said. "One of Regan's victims was sexually assaulted by him in the Eastport-South Manor Public School . . . when Regan was a teacher and basketball coach and she was a 16 year-old student. She was plied with alcohol and cajoled into sex with him several times," Ray said.

He added: "Eastport administrators knew of this. They did nothing. Now, this is finally coming to light. There are other student victims and employees. This is certain," Ray said. "We urge them to have the courage to come forward now."

The Eastport-South Manor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ray, Mitev & Associates, LLP filed a notice of claim on May 16 against Regan, Eastport-South Manor Central School District, and all superintendents, administrators, principals and their employees and/or agents from 1997 through 2002 on behalf of the woman; they will be seeking $20 million, a release said.

The notice of claim also states that Regan, then a special education teacher and her basketball coach, groomed the teen "for illicit sexual purposes. He was frequently with her in and out of school, solicited her attention, grossly overreached her, befriended her, counseled her, became her mentor, took her and other female students to the beach, to watch him surf and beguile them," the notice of claim states, adding that he also used "sexual innuendos."

According to Ray, the woman, now in her mid-30s, "struggled" for years before deciding to come forward; she refuses to give her name or speak publicly at a press conference, he said.

But, Ray said, the claims are "pretty shocking. What he did to her is worse than what he did to Anastasia [Stapon] by far."

The new woman to come forward, Ray told Patch, told him that the principal "brought her to a Knicks game — he had her pay for the tickets and then reimbursed her, because he was hiding it — got her drunk on beer and then compelled her to have oral sex."

The girl said that she and Regan had intercourse three times when she was 17, Ray said.

Today, the notice of claim said, the woman is 35 years old: "She has been destroyed. Her coach who had been her mentor, her hero, is in fact just a pervert who used his power over her to ensnare her in his dirty sexual traps. She was especially defenseless, a sitting target for a predator," the legal document said.

Regan, the notice of claim said: "sexually battered...sexually abused her, and raped her. She was dazed, overwhelmed, and helpless. Respondent did nothing to prevent this. Regan was not even suspended from employment."

Ray said there is another woman "waiting to come forward . . . and it's even worse. She was 14. This is what I see as the secular equivalent of the Catholic Church. These public schools are coddling and protecting these men," Ray said.

Stapon's lawsuit has been filed in federal court and the other woman's is "ready to go," Ray said. There needed to be a motion to allow the second woman to remain anonymous and, in addition, addresses for some of those involved needed to be tracked down despite some difficulties in locating them, he said.