Second lawsuit against Charles Regan raises allegation of 14-year-old victim
A new lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday accuses former Riverhead High School principal Charles Regan of engaging in sexual activity with two students during his time working in the South Manor School District, including one girl who was just 14 years old at the time of the alleged incident.
The civil suit, the second filed in as many months against the embattled administrator, centers around a 2001 incident in which he allegedly drove a 17-year-old high school student to a New York Knicks game, bought her beer and brought her back to a house where she performed oral sex on him. The complaint was filed under a pseudonym in Eastern District Court of New York by a client of attorney John Ray of Miller Place, who is also representing a recently graduated Riverhead High School student who claims Mr. Regan, 48, maintained an inappropriate relationship with her earlier this year.
At a press conference in May, Mr. Ray claimed knowledge of at least three women who had sexual relationships with Mr. Regan while students. While many details in the latest lawsuit filed against the principal and his former employers were previously disclosed in a notice of claim, the complaint filed Wednesday does contain some information not previously included in any legal documents, most notably that the third alleged victim was just 14 years old at the time the complaint says she was “sexually abused, assaulted, battered and raped” by Mr. Regan. The alleged third victim, who is not a plaintiff in any lawsuit against Mr. Regan, was also a student in the South Manor School District, according to the complaint. She is not mentioned by name in the lawsuit.
The plaintiff in the latest filing, who filed the lawsuit under the pseudonym Jane Coe, said she met Mr. Regan in 1997 when she played on a middle school basketball team he coached. Four years later, he asked her to purchase them a pair of tickets to a Knicks game without anyone else knowing and later reimbursed her for the tickets, according to the complaint.
The suit alleges that the plaintiff’s mother told school district authorities, who failed to investigate the incident. The school district, which has since merged to become Eastport-South Manor, and more than a dozen past administrators and school board members are named as co-defendants in the case. The notice of claim, a pre-cursor to a lawsuit, stated that Mr. Regan had sex with the plaintiff on three occasions, though the actual complaint only mentions the incident on the evening of the Knicks game, which according to the notice of claim took place in the basement of the home of Mr. Regan’s parents. He would have been about 30 years old at the time of the incident.
Mr. Regan left Eastport-South Manor in 2006 to join the Riverhead School District. Mr. Ray previously said the plaintiff in the new lawsuit is now 35 years old.
Allegations of misconduct by Mr. Regan first came to light when he was suspended from his job as Riverhead High School principal in April, following a complaint by senior Anastasia Stapon, who claims he sent her sexually explicit text messages and photographs, and kissed her behind closed doors in his office. Mr. Ray made those messages public at a press conference in May, when he announced his intent to file lawsuits on behalf of his clients.
Facing further discipline, Mr. Regan, who has not spoken publicly about the allegations, resigned late last month, one week after Ms. Stapon’s suit was filed. The former administrator has not been charged criminally, though Riverhead police previously confirmed an investigation into the administrator’s contact with Ms. Stapon. Mr. Ray said in May that his other client did not report her situation to police.
While the notice of claim filed in May by Ms. Stapon against Mr. Regan, the Riverhead School District and other administrators sought $10 million in damages, the actual complaints seek damages in amounts to be determined through the court.
