Brooklyn Asst. Principal Raped Teen Student, Threatened Her With Deportation: DA

EAST WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — William Abreu, a 47-year-old resident of Jamaica, Queens and the former assistant principal of East Williamsburg's Progress High School for Professional Careers, was found guilty of third-degree rape Monday for groping and raping a 17-year-old female student working in his office — and of threatening to report her as an illegal alien to immigration authorities if she didn't comply.

Under New York state law, when someone over the age of 21 has sex with someone between 15 and 17 years old, the crime is considered rape in the third degree. (For victims between 12 and 14, the rape charges are raised to second-degree, and for victims 11 and under, the charges are first-degree.)

Abreu, pictured above, faces up to four years in prison when he is sentenced in November later this year.

“This defendant was an assistant principal who violated the trust of a vulnerable teenager when he coerced her to engage in an unwanted sex act using her immigration status as leverage," Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson in a statement Monday. "This young woman had the courage to speak out against this abuse. He’s now been held accountable for his deplorable actions.”

Abreu began making inappropriate sexual advances to the teenager during the summer of 2009, DA prosecutors said, when the victim — a recent graduate of Progress High —worked in Abreu’s on-campus office.

Aware of his victim’s status as an undocumented immigrant, Abreu threatened to contact immigration authorities if she didn't let him have sex with her, the DA's Office found.

Then, after Abreu "proceeded to grope and rape her," he continued to threaten to deport her if she didn't keep working for him, the DA said.

Abreu was fired as the school's assistant principal by the New York City Department of Education (DOE) in November 2013.

According to DNAinfo, a report released that year by the DOE's Special Commissioner of Investigation found that Abreu demanded that the girl to "dress sexy"; told her that she would accompany to out-of-town "political functions," where "she would be paid for having sex with others"; stole $1,500 from her mother "on the false promise he would obtain an [immigration] attorney for her"; and passed her off to Juan Martinez, an employee at Progress High's after-school program, who said, "You have to do the same thing with me that you did with Abreu."

Lead image courtesy of the Brooklyn DA's Office