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Borough police arrested Marcelo Velez, 56, at his home after they “received information that [he] engaged in sexual acts with a child under the age of 13 while in Woodcliff Lake,” Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said Tuesday.
An investigation by Musella’s Special Victims Unit led to charges of aggravated sexual assault, two counts of sexual assault and a charge of child endangerment through sexual contact against Velez, who is Columbia’s vice president of university facilities.
According to Columbia University’s web site, Velez “serves as the University's point person on all aspects of development, design and construction of the University's 6.8 million sq. foot Manhattanville in West Harlem campus expansion.”
Velez holds a BS in civil engineering from Rutgers University and an MBA from Columbia, the site says, adding that he is a licensed professional engineer in New York State.
He’s been with Columbia since 1995 and, over the years, “has managed, supervised, or otherwise presided over $1 billion worth of capital construction,” it says.
Velez remained held Tuesday in the Bergen County Jail pending a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack.
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