Four women are suing the city Education Department and the longtime principal of a Queens high school, accusing him of being a serial sex predator who earned the nickname “Creepy Bill” — just a few months after his arrest on sexual abuse charges.
William Bassell, 66, treated the Academy of American Studies in Astoria as “his personal playground for sexual fulfillment” for at least a decade, while the city Department of Education stonewalled his accusers’ attempts to report him, alleges the lawsuit, which was filed in Brooklyn Federal Court on Friday.
The women suing William Bassell, the principal of the Academy of American Studies, include a former student who says he sexually assaulted her during a 2015 field trip to the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center, the guidance counselor who reported the alleged assault, and two staff members who say he sexually harassed them.
Bassell was arrested in Queens on May 26 on five counts of sexual abuse, accused of groping two women who work at the school over the course of a year, blocking one of them from leaving a vehicle as he “grazed” her neck and breast with his hand. The case is still pending, with his next court appearance scheduled for Thursday. Bassell, whose been removed from his post, has denied the charges.
One of the alleged victims was Leslie Kohn, an assistant principal at the school, and his arrest opened the floodgates, leading Kohn and the three other women to file their lawsuit, attorney Amy Robinson told the Daily News Tuesday.
“It seems like there were a lot of people who knew that there was misconduct, and it seems like there were people who were reporting him, and it’s pretty shocking that, according to my clients and according to the allegations, nothing was done,” Robinson said.
The lawsuit accuses the Education Department of “allowing a serial predator to use a New York City public school as a venue for grooming and sexual assault.”
“With the benefit of the DOE’s deliberate indifference, Bassell — widely known as ‘Creepy Bill,’ ‘Creepy Bassell,’ or simply ‘Creep’ by students and faculty members at the Academy — has, for more than a decade, targeted female employees and at least one female
student, singling them out for illegal touching, texting, and commentary,” the lawsuit alleges.
Bassell is so notorious, the suit alleges, that an Instagram account called “AAS Takes a Stand” posted several student accounts and allegations in 2020.
“Based on the information available to Plaintiffs, it is nearly certain that there are dozens of other women and girls who were abused by Bassell,” the suit alleges. “However, because Bassell still holds the title of Principal, many of his victims are unwilling to come forward publicly for fear of retaliation.”
One accuser, then-student Khiabet Leal, now a city school teacher, alleges that she landed in Bassell’s sights after she transferred to the academy because she was severely bullied at her last school.
During a field trip to the Metropolitan Opera on Feb. 13, 2015. Leal stepped into the lobby and sat on the carpet suffering a migraine and stomachache — and Bassell crouched down to ask if she was OK, then reached underneath her skirt and started rubbing her inner thigh, the suit alleges.
Leal eventually confided in two teachers about what happened the following year, and those teachers told Nicole Sinatra, the school guidance counselor, who reported the alleged assault. Leal alleges that Education Department investigators “interrogated” her in an empty classroom, “expressing derisive skepticism of her account, and made a thinly veiled threat about her prospects for college,” according to the suit.
Sinatra alleges that after she reported the abuse, Bassell started retaliating against her, criticizing and berating her, accusing her of taking bathroom breaks too often, and writing her up for being a minute late to work — despite her request for a medical accommodation for an anxiety diagnosis.
Another accuser, Tara Murphy, a licensed social worker at the school since 2021, said Bassell started with sexually inappropriate comments within weeks of her hiring, and gave her unwanted, lingering hugs while rubbing her back. He’d leer at her whenever she bent over while wearing a dress and share lewd gossip about the school’s students, the lawsuit alleges.
Murphy tried to report Bassell’s behavior to her United Federation of Teachers chapter leader in April 2022, but was told it “wouldn’t go anywhere” and she’d suffer a backlash.
In one incident during a March 2024 staff meeting, Bassell came up behind her while the group was deciding on Chinese food, rubbed her back and “brought his lips up to her ear and said that he wanted to order ‘suck me yum soup,’” the suit alleges. He repeated the line into her ear as he laughed, according to the suit.
Murphy, Sinatra and others reported the incident to the same UFT Chapter leader, who told her Bassell was “Teflon Don” because “nothing sticks to him.” the suit alleges. UFT representatives did not immediately return a message seeking comment Tuesday.
Kohn, the assistant principal, said Bassell started harassing her for months before her official start date in August 2022, stroking her arm, texting her asking for photos, and asking her, “When was the last time you were with your husband?” the suit alleges.
Kohn subjected her to weekly abuse, groping, stroking, caressing and touching her without permission, and finally, she took a teaching job in Long Island for $50,000 less than what she was making to get away from him, the lawsuit alleges.
The harassment escalated after she started her new job, but the Education Department’s Title IX Attorney warned her that her identity could be exposed as a whistleblower, so she refrained from filing a complaint, the suit alleges.
“She took a very substantial salary cut to get out of there,” Robinson said. “She was on a career trajectory. And she had worked towards becoming an AP for a long time. She’s a pretty accomplished person.”
When she tried to get another assistant principal job with the city in May, a school district official asked if she left her last job because of Bassell’s “pervy stuff,” and the Queens North school district superintendent suggested she file a police report, leading to his arrest, the suit alleges.
Bassell’s criminal defense lawyer didn’t immediately provide a comment on the allegations against him.
Education Department officials referred all questions to the city Law Department, which declined comment on the lawsuit.
With Cayla Bamberger
Originally Published: September 2, 2025 at 4:15 PM EDT
