When Mount Vernon youth basketball coach Dwayne Murray admitted to investigators last year that he had engaged in sexual activity with a pre-teen girl on multiple occasions he claimed he had often told her they could not continue to act that way but that she had seduced him.
Murray, 63, pleaded guilty Friday, Sept. 18, in Westchester County Court to first-degree course of sexual conduct against a child after prosecutors Alexandra Kontos and Christine Hatfield offered him a prison term of 18 years.
Murray was the longtime executive director of the Mount Vernon Junior Knights basketball program. He coached its 7th-8th grade girls team and spent several years as an assistant
coach for the boys' varsity team at Mount Vernon High School.
The victim in the case was on his team and he was trying to help her through an abusive relationship with her parents.
The allegation that Murray may have sexually abused a girl first surfaced during the 2025 campaign for Mount Vernon school board. His former fiancee who he was still living with was running for a seat on the board and was among those challenging a slate of candidates that included the school board president. The president's husband, Gregory Bonaparte, contacted the DA's Office after getting information that Murray may have sexually abused a girl. He also told Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard, though did not identify Murray by name.
The mayor told Murray and he took to Facebook, posting a video in which he denied any abuse, called the allegation a smear campaign and welcomed the DA's Office to question him. Prosecutors took him up on his offer and on May 14, 2025, investigators brought him to the office at the county courthouse for questioning.
The recording of the 3 1/2 hour interview of Murray by investigators Rachel Dragos and Marecia Baltimore was played in court this month at a hearing to determine whether his statements would be admissible at trial.
They did not let on until midway through the interview that they had already spoken to the girl. Murray detailed the steps he was taking to help her and denied any sexual activity.
They eventually confronted him with sexually explicit text messages between the two, including him telling her he wanted to "be inside her" and "the way you move your body is so sexy." He denied any intercourse but acknowledged multiple times when he drove her home and stopped to engage in physical contact, often on a stretch of Fifth Street. He admitted groping the girl, showing her his penis and that they performed oral sex on each other.
He claimed she told him repeatedly that she wanted to have his baby and that she grew upset when he told her that wouldn't happen.
When the investigators told him he was going to be charged, they left him alone for several minutes with the room still being recorded. He leaned his head on the table or on the wall and paced the room a few times. He tore the wrapper off the juice bottle they had given him, and slammed the bottle or his hand on the table several times.
He repeatedly bemoaned not contacting child protective services when he should have. He said his reputation and basketball program were ruined because he was "seduced by a 13-year-old" and he apologized out loud to his adult daughter.
"Oh God. This is crazy. What was I thinking," he said at one point, adding moments later: "I can't believe this. I didn't even want to."
On questioning by Kontos on Friday, Murray admitted engaging in at least two acts of sexual contact including oral sex between October 2023 and March 2024, while the girl was 12.
Murray has been held at the county jail since his arrest. Westchester Judge Robert Prisco returned him there Friday to await sentencing, which he scheduled for Nov. 17.
The top charge Murray faced was predatory sexual assault of a child, which could have landed him a life sentence in prison.
The judge said he had offered Murray a sentence of 16 years to life if he had chosen to plead guilty to that charge but that Murray had opted for the flat 18-year sentence. He will also be subject to 20 years of post release supervision and must register as a sex offender.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Exclusive| Mount Vernon youth coach pleads guilty in sex abuse of girl
