Poly Prep Students — Including Bon Jovi’s Son — Given Booze, Cigars, And Hooker During Cuba Trip: Lawsuit
Two Poly Prep Country Day School students — including Jon Bon Jovi’s son — were taken on a cigar and booze-fueled trip to Cuba and shared a hooker on the school’s dime, alleges a new lawsuit.
Though the 31-page Brooklyn Supreme Court discrimination suit doesn’t name the students, Instagram photos show high school seniors Sebastian Anderson and the rockstar’s son, Jesse Bongiovi — both of whom graduated from the Dyker Heights school in 2012 — lighting up Cubans and partying in a luxurious penthouse around the time alleged in the court papers, reports the New York Post.
Social-media shots appear to show Jesse Bongiovi and his best friend from the posh Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn puffing away on stogies and soaking up the rays from rooftop patios overlooking the Caribbean — a trip in which the teens were plied with booze, cigars and a hooker on the Brooklyn school’s dime, according to a lawsuit.
“First night in paradise #cuba,” Sebastian Andersen wrote in a blurry Instagram post of him and best bud Bongiovi lighting up inside a restaurant during the December 2012 trip.
Other images show rooftop balconies, a box full of Cuban cigars and a large oceanfront pool.
“Just my penthouse for the next week in Cuba #thegoodlife,” Andersen boasted.
The teen presumed to be Bongiovi is described in court papers as the son of a famous musician who “became a generous supporter of the school via his charity concerts,” according to reports, thought his identity has not been confirmed by the New Jersey-born singer.
“We never, ever comment on Jon’s family,” Bon Jovi spokesman Ken Sunshine told news outlets.
The lawsuit, filed by alumna and school employee Lisa Della Pietra, accuses the prep school’s development director Steven Anderson — Sebastian’s father — of organizing the overseas trip and putting the students “in harms way” using school funds. When they returned to school, the boys bragged about the debauchery to their classmates, the suit alleges.
After getting numerous complaints from other parents, Della Pietra claims she confronted Anderson who justified the trip saying he was trying to create an exchange program for the Poly Prep wrestling team in Cuba. He later admitted to Della Pietra that he was checking out a personal investment opportunity, according to the documents.
Regarding the prostitute, Anderson told Della Pietra that the woman had come to their hotel room in search of tampons and cash and he felt sorry for her, so he and the boys “had fun” with her. The boys told classmates that at one point their chaperone was so drunk they needed to get away from him, according to the suit.
After Della Pietra reported the incident to Poly Prep headmaster David Harman — who vowed not to reveal that she was the source — she says she was regularly harassed by Anderson. The school then “conducted a sham investigation and paid for Andersen’s attorney,” and never fully reported the incident to the board of trustees in order “to protect a ‘high profile’ celebrity parent of a student who attended the Cuba trip,” Della Pietra charges.
Anderson’s only “punishment” was to reimburse the school for the trip.
The suit also alleges that Anderson was taking kickbacks from subcontractors whose bids were selected for construction done on the school, and accepted expensive gifts from parents in exchange for a seat on the school board or to ensure their child’s academic standing. One parent of a struggling student allegedly paid for Anderson’s $11,000 garage door. Another parent gave the school official a $12,000 hot tub in exchange for a seat on the board, claims the suit.
At least two deep-pocketed benefactors pulled their support from Poly Prep since the allegations have surfaced, reports the Post:
One former trustee whose family has a net worth of over $3 billion resigned after the board ignored her concerns about Andersen, Della Pietra claims.
Another ex-trustee, Jacquin Fink, a managing director at Merrill Lynch, planned to leave the school $10 million in his will. When he questioned why Poly hadn’t fully disclosed the accusations against Andersen, the school kicked Fink from the board, according to the lawsuit. He has since pulled his bequest.
This is not the first explosive scandal to rock the prep school. In 2009, seven alumni filled a lawsuit against the Poly Prep — with two more plaintiffs joining soon after — charging that the school’s deceased football coach Philip Foglietta sexually abused them between 1966 and 1981. Those who tried to report the abuse were threatened with expulsion and were not told about others who had come forward, reported the Wall Street Journal in 2011. The case was settled in 2012.