Former Brighton High School employee John Jamar Cokley faces more sex offenses – NBC Boston

A former Brighton High School employee who also worked for a Boston nonprofit organization supporting at-risk youth faces additional sex offenses. He is accused of sexually exploiting five high school students and raping two of them between fall 2023 and March 2024, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Prosecutors accuse Boston resident John Jamar Cokley of surrounding himself with young girls and sexually soliciting them while taking advantage of their “vulnerability and financial insecurity.”

According to prosecutors, a local high school reported three months ago that one of its students had been sexually exploited.

Investigators were then presented with several Instagram messages between Cokley and the student in which explicit photos and videos were exchanged, authorities said. He also allegedly told the student where he would meet her to have “sex for money.”

As part of this investigation, additional victims were identified who said they were exploited or abused by Cokley, Hayden said.

According to Hayden, the victims described meeting the Boston man through Instagram, where he persuaded them to send him nude photos and videos in exchange for money.

“Cokley would send the girls random messages on Instagram and compliment them on their appearance to create a connection,” Hayden said. “(He) offered the girls ‘pocket money’ if they sent him nude pictures or videos.”

The 38-year-old is also accused of asking two of the victims to sell marijuana.

According to prosecutors, Cokley complained that the victims, who were at school, did not respond to him quickly enough and threatened to take away their “pocket money.”

Investigators found dozens of nude photos and videos of the victims on both his phone and his Instagram account, Hayden said.

“Cokley appears in several self-produced videos depicting child sexual abuse,” the district attorney said.

Cokley will face a dangerousness hearing next month after a grand jury indicted him last week on 30 counts of child sexual abuse, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.

The indictment expands the charges and number of victims since Cokley’s indictment in April, District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a news release.

Cokley is charged with seven counts of trafficking a child for sexual exploitation, five counts of aggravated rape of a child, one count of forcible rape of a child, three counts of depicting a child in the nude, four counts of depicting a child in sexual conduct, four counts of enticement of a child under the age of 18 for commercial sex, two counts of enticement of a minor to sell controlled substances, one count of distribution of harmful substances to a minor, and possession and purchase of child pornography.

Resources for victims of sexual assault are available through the National Sexual Violence Resources Center and the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673and Massachusetts provides this list of statewide resources for victims of sexual assault.

The 38-year-old will be held without bail until his hearing because of his dangerousness, prosecutors said.

Cokley worked as an educational assistant at Brighton High School from 2019 to 2021, Hayden said, and was affiliated with MissionSAFE.

Anyone who may have been a victim of Cokley is asked to contact the Boston Police Department’s Human Trafficking Unit at 617-343-6533.