The prominent high school athletic director who caused an uproar last month by calling Adolf Hitler a “good leader” was accused two years earlier of making another inappropriate statement, NJ Advance Media has learned.

“You have great legs, great calves and a great ass ... for sports,” Nutley High School Athletic Director Joe Piro told a female student in his office, according to a 2017 lawsuit that also claimed he touched her in an “intimate spot” under the guise of showing her a basketball move.

The school district agreed to pay the student-athlete $72,500 to settle the case, according to court filings. In the filings, Piro denied the behavior, and the school district admitted no wrongdoing.

Nutley school district attorney Marc Zitomer said this month the school fully investigated the allegations, but he is “unable to divulge the results of that investigation or what action, if any, was taken in response.”

Piro, 47, who returned to work this week after serving a suspension for the Hitler comments, declined several attempts for comment when reached by phone by NJ Advance Media.

While the Hitler comment made headlines across the country, the allegations and settlement in 2017 went mostly unnoticed.

At the time, Piro’s career was reaching new heights and he was solidifying his standing as one of the most powerful and influential athletic officials in New Jersey. It was the inaugural season of the Super Football Conference, a 113-team league spanning seven counties that he helped form and for which he serves as president. He also had been named Essex County athletic director of the year in 2016.

The lawsuit, filed in March 2017, identified the girl and her parents only by their initials. The former student spoke to NJ Advance Media on the condition her name not be used. The student was 16 and a junior when the alleged incident occurred. She is now 18.

In the interview, she said she and another student-athlete went to Piro’s office Jan. 5, 2017, to ask him about a matter involving the basketball team. She said she had seen him at the school and school events but had never really spoken to him before this visit.

“After we said goodbye, Piro said, ‘Oh, do you know what you guys should be working on at practice? ... Boxing out,’” she said.

Boxing out is a rebounding technique in which a player uses her back and bottom to push into other players to keep them away from the ball.

“He went over to me, told me to get in front of him and box him out, and I was kind of hesitant. It was really awkward, and he took my one hand and put it on his ass,” she said. When she still didn’t box him out, she said, he switched positions with her. “He went in front of me and put his hand on the side of my ass and he patted — he like tapped my ass.”

She said she was trying to move away from him and was almost backed up against the wall when he stopped. Piro then made the comment about her legs and buttocks, she said, before she and the other student left his office.

“As we left, I said to her, ‘I feel like I just got raped, basically,’” the former student said. “I kind of joked about it because it didn’t feel real. Like his hands were all over me. It felt like I was in a movie.”

She reported it to a teacher, who reported it to Principal Denis Williams, the lawsuit said. The other student, who was not part of the lawsuit, could not be reached for comment.

George Cotz, a Ramsey-based attorney who represented the student-athlete, said “there’s no doubt in my mind that this man behaved inappropriately.”

The girl was left emotionally distressed and in need of therapy, according to the lawsuit. Cotz requested during litigation that Piro stop attending the girl’s games, writing that she was disturbed by his frequent presence and how he “appears to stare at her.”

The lawsuit claims that the school investigated and found that Piro had acted “unprofessionally,” but he was not punished. In court filings, however, Piro and school officials denied those claims.

“He shouldn’t be able to work with kids at all. He’s disgusting,” the former student said.

Several district officials, including Superintendent Julie Glazer, have declined comment on the incident.

The matter was referred to the Nutley police, which investigated but declined to press charges. The findings of the Nutley police investigation were presented to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, which also declined to bring charges, court records show.

The suit alleges a pattern of similar behavior.

“Piro has acted in inappropriate ways with other female students and staff; and Nutley is aware of that conduct,” the suit claimed. The school and Piro both denied the allegation in court filings.

Court filings show that the $72,500 settlement was paid by the school district’s insurance company, Qual-Lynx, in November 2017. Because of the way the agreement was handled, the school board did not have to take public action on the matter.

Last month, Piro again found himself in hot water when he described Hitler as a “good leader” and showed a picture of him side by side with Martin Luther King Jr. during a leadership presentation to student-athletes at Madison High. After Madison parents complained, Piro apologized and said he was trying to “make a point that a leader could have strong leadership skills that influence people in a negative way.”

During a special district meeting March 25 to discuss Piro’s comments, several of the state’s most prominent athletic officials, including former New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association Executive Director Steve Timko, came to Nutley to defend Piro.

Bill Edelman, the former athletic director from Vernon High, drove from Delaware and described Piro as “an advocate for our youth.” Edelman added, “I’ve never known him to be anything but an ambassador of goodwill, ethical fairness and integrity.”

NJ Advance Media staff writer Alex Napoliello contributed to this report.

Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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