Convicted NJ sex predator youth tennis pro faces up to life in prison

🔴 NJ man found guilty of aggravated sex assault among 14 counts

🔴 Victim was 12 when more than a year of sex crimes began

🔴 Prosecutor calls actions ‘nearly incomprehensibly manipulative and predatory’

A Monmouth County jury convicted a former youth tennis instructor of multiple sexual crimes against a young student, starting when she was 12, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond Santiago announced Wednesday.

After a two-week trial in Monmouth County Superior Court, 32-year-old Terry Y. Kuo, of Colts Neck, was found guilty of 14 total charges, including two first-degree counts of aggravated sexual assault.

The case stemmed from an investigation after one of Kuo’s students went to police about the repeated sexual abuse that happened between August 2016 and November 2017.

Kuo — also known as “Victor Lee” — was arrested in Marlboro in November 2017 and was initially indicted in February 2018.

Investigators found digital images on Kuo's electronic devices that became evidence of sexual crimes committed against the victim.

As more victims came forward, superseding indictments were then filed based on additional evidence in December 2018 and this past January.

In February, a mistrial was declared, after Kuo urinated in the courtroom in front of a panel of prospective jurors, as reported by Asbury Park Press.

A summer trial then ended in mistrial in early August, according to Asbury Park Press, after that jury was unable to reach a verdict after nearly a week of deliberating.

His latest trial began in late September.

The victim, now 19, testified that Kuo manipulated her as a child with gifts like expensive electronics, jewelry, and designer clothing and accessories while coercing her into engaging in sexual activity with him.

In addition to aggravated sexual assault, the jury also convicted Kuo of the following charges:

- first-degree endangering the welfare of a child via manufacture of child sexual abuse materials
- first-degree kidnapping
- three counts of second-degree sexual assault
- second-degree endangering via manufacture of child sexual abuse materials
- third-degree aggravated criminal sexual contact
- third-degree endangering via possession of child sexual abuse materials
- third-degree endangering via engaging in sexual conduct
- third-degree obscenity
- fourth-degree criminal sexual contact
- fourth-degree conspiracy to commit evidence tampering.

“The conduct of this defendant, so thoroughly outlined by our prosecutors during the course of this trial, was nearly incomprehensibly manipulative and predatory,” Santiago said on Wednesday.

The prosecutor continued “We sincerely thank the jury for carefully weighing the facts and reaching the appropriate conclusion.”

When sentenced on Friday, Dec. 1, Kuo could face a term of up to life in state prison.

He currently remains held at the Monmouth County jail.

Kuo still faced additional charges from the January superseding indictment that accused him of leading a massive identity theft ring.

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