Elite NY school Saint David hushed up sexual abuse of students by staff as 'socializing', lawsuit alleges
An elite private school in Manhattan is facing a shocking $20 million lawsuit from a former student alleging he was molested by three staffers, and that one of them kept jeans with locks of his victims' hair sewn into them as a sick trophy. Anthony Filiberti is the second alum to sue the high-profile Saint David’s School over sexual abuse he suffered as a student. The first alleged victim, Peter DeFeo, 59, revealed earlier this year how he was just eight years old when he was molested by one of the teachers at the prestigious school.
“Initially, it was incredibly pleasant. You ran around this donated mansion,” said Filiberti, who attended the $50,000-a-year all-boys elementary that boasts of Tom Brady’s son as a student and the late John F. Kennedy Jr. as a graduate. Filiberti's father was well-known concert promoter Raymond Filiberti, who catered to clients including Judy Garland. However, life "went sideways" shortly after, said Anthony, now 60.
Filiberti claims his homeroom teacher Rey Buono was the first to abuse him, according to the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit filed against the school under New York’s Child Victims Act, which "opened a legal window to adjudicate old sex-abuse claims," the New York Post reported.
74-year-old Buono is currently free on a $50,000 bail, but is facing child sex abuse charges in Massachusetts. Filiberti's second abuser was guitar teacher Chuck Jones, who allegedly introduced him to drugs, sexually abused him when he was incapacitated, and even forced him to peddle drugs on his behalf, per court documents.
Legal papers state how Jones' prized possession was a pair of jeans with the hair of kids he was abusing sewn into them. “He was proud of it. He called it, ‘All the young dudes.’ He got so many of them he turned it into a braid,” said Filiberti.
He claimed Jones would kiss him and blow marijuana into his mouth, and that he had sex with Saint David’s French teacher Charlie Rich in front of his eyes. “They would do what they would do, to sort of gauge reaction, groom, test, push boundaries,” he said, adding that Rich also abused him.
Jones reportedly carried out the abuse at his East 75th Street apartment, where he gave guitar lessons to children. According to Filiberti's lawsuit, Jones even had sex with his 14-year-old ex-girlfriend, resulting in complaints from her school to Saint David's.
“I saw so many kids from Saint David’s come and go there, I thought nothing of it,” Filiberti said of his visits to Jones’ home.
Court papers allege that headmaster David Hume swept the incidents under the rug and referred to the abuse as "socializing." “I know all about Chuck Jones,” Hume allegedly told Filiberti. “You’re not to speak about this.”
The lawsuit states that Hume arranged a scholarship for Filiberti at the famed Choate Rosemary Hall, the alma mater of JFK, as a "bribe." Hume died in 2015. But Filiberti was expelled from Choate for drug possession. His lawsuit states that anxiety, depression, and anger issues as a result of the abuse had sent him into “a 20-year spiral of trying to push down and live with something that I couldn’t talk to anybody about, that haunted me.”
“The Saint David’s experienced by our client and his classmates was a cesspool from which few emerged unscathed,” lawyer Gil Santamarina said. “It must be held accountable.”
Filiberti, who is now a married father-of-two working in mortgage banking, reportedly wept as he urged other victims to come forward. “At the end of the day, although difficult and painful, you’re going to feel a lot better after you do speak up. And I never thought that was a possibility,” he told the Post.
St. David's said in a statement that it had urged community members to speak up about the alleged abuse. “Last December, after a member of our community came forward with allegations of abuse by a teacher who worked at our school some 50 years ago, Saint David’s encouraged any individual who had experienced or was aware of inappropriate conduct by anyone while at the school to contact us. We remain open for anyone to speak with us and are committed to investigating any allegations that we receive,” the statement read.