A former principal at Robert F. Wagner High School for the Arts and Technology in Long Island City who was suspended for a year without pay after nude photos were found on her work laptop said her ex-boyfriend planted them there.
Annie Seifullah, 39, told the New York Daily News that her ex-boyfriend, Robert Sofia, who also served as the school’s PTA president, planted nude photos of Seifullah on her work laptop in 2014. Sofia then gave the photos to Department of Education (DOE) officials and the media.
According to the New York Post, Seifullah was suspended from the school, which is located at 47-07 30th Pl., in 2014 after Sofia handed over the laptop and an audio and video tape in which Seifullah allegedly admitted to engaging in oral sex with an NYPD school-safety agent and an assistant principal from another school on Robert Wagner High School property.
But investigators did not find any evidence to prove that she had sex on school property, the Daily News reported. Seifullah and Sofia broke up in 2014 after dating for two years. The ex-principal told the paper that she broke up with him after he became verbally abusive and demanded money.
The Post reported that Seifullah had given her ex-boyfriend $10,000 and $500 and $300 money orders at one point.
While Sofia claims that he broke up with Seifullah because she cheated on him, Seifullah said Sofia threatened that if she didn’t pay him, he would turn over nude photos to the public, the Daily News reported.
DOE officials passed around nude photos of Seifullah having sex with her ex-husband at an Oct. 19 termination hearing, the Daily News Reported. She told the paper that a lawyer for the DOE threatened to share the photos if Seifullah did not resign. The hearing officer for the case, Barry Peek, decided not to fire her for the photos but instead suspended her for a year without pay for other charges.
She was charged for misusing city resources, failing to secure her computer and other minor charges like using a sick day to go to a traffic hearing and hiring a teacher to babysit her 7-year-old son.
“I lost everything and was publicly degraded because my ex-boyfriend used revenge porn to attack me,” Seifullah told the Daily News. “The Education Department should have protected and defended me. Instead, they spent the next three years stoning me in the public square.”
Sofia told the Daily News that he is working on an upcoming graphic novel titled “The Promiscuous Principal” to tell his side of the story.
“The arbitrator determined Ms. Seifullah violated several DOE policies that warranted a year-long suspension,” said Doug Cohen, spokesperson for DOE.
