Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office

                                 25 Kirkpatrick Street, 3rd Floor, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 08901 (732) 745-3300

 

                                *News Release*          Date: July 28, 2009

 
 

 

 

 


Former coach pleads guilty to sex assault; child endangerment charges

 

 

          Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan announced that an Edison man pleaded guilty today to a charge of sexually assaulting an underage member of a lacrosse team while he served as coach, and, in a separate case, admitted endangering the welfare of a teenage girl he initially met while serving as coach of her softball team.

 

David M. Prongay, (DOB 6/18/65) admitted sexually assaulting the lacrosse player on one occasion in Edison between April 1, 2008, and February 18, 2009, while the victim was either 13 or 14 years old.

 

In the separate case, he admitted a count of endangering the welfare of a child, saying that sometime between September 1, 2002, and December 1, 2002, he kissed the 15-year-old girl in Edison for his own sexual gratification.

 

Under the terms of a plea agreement negotiated with Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Christie Bevacqua, the defendant faces up to 10 years in prison on the sexual assault charge, and a concurrent term of up to four years on the child endangerment count.

 

He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 13, 2009, by Superior Court Judge Frederick P. DeVesa at the Middlesex County Courthouse in New Brunswick.

 

As part of the plea agreement, Prongay must register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law. On the sexual assault count, he faces parole supervision for the rest of his life. He also faces lifetime community supervision on the child endangerment charge.

 

Prongay, who worked as a general contractor, was arrested February 18, 2009, at his home on charges of sexually assaulting the member of the Edison Lightning Lacrosse Club, where he served for the past five seasons as a volunteer coach.

 

He was arrested a second time on February 24, 2009, on the child endangerment case involving the 15-year-old girl, who had been a member of the Edison Angels, a softball team that Prongay had coached. The incident occurred after the softball season had ended.

 

The arrests were made following investigations by Edison Police Detective John Canavera and Investigator Frank DiNinno of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.