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The victim, now 14, reported the alleged incidents to local police, who contacted the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit on March 7, Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes and Clifton Police Chief Tom Rinaldi said late Monday.
An investigation followed that included interviews with, among others, the youngster, who reported “multiple sexual assaults by the suspect in residences in both Clifton and Paterson,” they said.
It wasn’t explained why it took nearly a year to arrest and charge the defendant, whose name wasn’t released because he was being prosecuted as a juvenile under New Jersey law based on when the alleged assaults occurred.
Detectives signed delinquency complaints charging the man with two counts each of first-degree aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and child endangerment.
He was released pending a first appearance that will be held behind closed doors in the Family Part of Superior Court in Paterson – again, because authorities said he was a juvenile at the time of the alleged assaults.
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