{"id":219915,"date":"2026-05-04T22:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T22:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/219915\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T22:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T22:49:10","slug":"nyc-principal-dubbed-creepy-bill-could-dodge-sex-abuse-raps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/219915\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC principal dubbed \u2018Creepy Bill\u2019 could dodge sex-abuse raps"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Queens principal dubbed \u201cCreepy Bill\u2019\u2019 could dodge sex-abuse charges<\/a> \u2014 and potentially spend the rest of his days living on a cushy taxpayer-funded pension \u2014 if he just retires, according to his accusers.<\/p>\n

Longtime Academy of American Studies Principal William Bassell, 67, who earned his derogatory moniker from weirded-out students, was set to begin his criminal trial last week.<\/p>\n

Queens high-school Principal William Bassell has been accused of seamy sex-harassment allegations. Brigitte Stelzer<\/p>\n

He has been accused criminally of sex abuse and forcible touching involving two female teachers \u2014 and of groping a teen student and also targeting female underlings for more than a decade, according to a pair of civil suits.<\/p>\n

One suit accuses him of grabbing a teacher\u2019s breast and bombarding her with more than 30,000 texts, some of which included graphic sexual content.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what you can do with that tongue don\u2019t you\u2026.,\u201d the high-school principal allegedly wrote the educator \u2014 adding a tongue emoji.<\/p>\n

Bassell, 67, served as principal at the Academy of American Studies since 2011. James Messerschmidt<\/p>\n

He also once reached under a 16-year-old student\u2019s skirt and groped her, according to a lawsuit.<\/p>\n

But prosecutors announced at the start of his trial that they have offered Bassell a special deal where his criminal charges will be tossed if he resigns from the Department of Education and completes sex-offender treatment.<\/p>\n

Bassell would still face<\/a> the civil federal lawsuits that claim he turned his public school into \u201chis personal playground for sexual fulfillment<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that Bassell\u2019s removal is a long overdue first step, but Bassell and the DOE have not truly been held accountable yet,\u201d said Amy Robinson, who reps five of his alleged victims.<\/p>\n

Bassell allegedly groped a teacher and bombarded her with texts. Brigitte Stelzer<\/p>\n

Robinson said she and her clients also have \u201cunanswered questions regarding whether Bassell will receive a generous pension upon resignation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He earned a whopping $204,305 last year, which would help provide the basis for any annual pension. <\/p>\n

The city Department to Education, which said it has since removed Bassell from his post, indicated that the defendant\u2019s union ultimately decides pension issues.<\/p>\n

The union did not respond to a Post request for comment.<\/p>\n

Khiabet Leal, who claims in a lawsuit that \u201cCreepy Bill\u201d groped her as a student outside of the Met Opera, said, \u201cIt is profoundly troubling and infuriating that Bassell, who groped me beneath my skirt when I was just 16 years old, may receive in excess of $1 million in pension payments over the next 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another alleged victim, social worker and lawsuit plaintiff Tara Murphy, said she hopes to see a \u201cmore meaningful consequence than a taxpayer-funded pension.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leslie Kohn, an alleged victim in Bassell\u2019s criminal case and a plaintiff in the civil suit helmed by Robinson, said, \u201cThe most important outcome for women and girls is that Bassell will no longer be in a position of power within the DOE.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bassell served as principal at the school since 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis alleged behavior is reprehensible and wholly unacceptable,\u201d said Chyann Tull, a rep for the DOE, to The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis individual was immediately removed from students upon learning of these allegations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bassell is due back in court June 15 for an update on the case. It is unclear if he is expected at the time to either accept or reject the prosecution\u2019s offer \u2014 a situation first reported by the New York Daily News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It also is not clear whether a judge has to sign off on the move, which is not a plea deal.<\/p>\n

Bassell\u2019s lawyer declined comment to The Post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queens principal dubbed \u201cCreepy Bill\u2019\u2019 could dodge sex-abuse charges \u2014 and potentially spend the rest of his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9096,4337,11182,2850,57,9,11,10,122,58],"class_list":["post-219915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-abuse","tag-department-of-education","tag-high-schools","tag-lawsuits","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-queens","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}