3 CommentsMarcelo Velez, Vice President of the Manhattanville expansion project, was arrested on January 4 in Bergen County for alleged sexual assault of a minor.
Editor’s Warning: Sexual Assault
Columbia University’s Vice President of Manhattanville Development, Marcelo Velez, was arrested on Monday for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor in his Woodcliffe Lake, New Jersey home.
Velez, 56, was recently charged with sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a minor, according to an official statement by the Bergen County Prosecutor. Woodcliffe Police was notified on Sunday by the victim’s mother, who reported that Velez had allegedly forced her daughter, a girl younger than 13 years old, into performing sexual acts in his home the day before. Further details of these alleged assaults are not currently available. Details on his prior relationship with this child are also unclear.
Bwog reached out to Columbia Communications for a statement from the administration. A University spokesperson responded, “We have placed Mr. Velez on administrative leave and will cooperate fully with law enforcement officials investigating this matter.” No further comment has been made at this time.
Marcelo Velez has been with Columbia since 1995, according to the Columbia University Facilities website. Prior to being placed on administrative leave, Velez was the Vice President of the Manhattanville Development expansion project. According to his profile, Velez served on “the advisor board for the ACE Mentorship Program, Columbia University’s School of Continuing Education’s new master’s degree program in Construction Administration, and as Vice Chair of the Greater New York Construction User Council.”
Velez is currently being held at the Bergen County Jail in New Jersey. His first appearance for his charges of sexual assault and endangering a minor is still pending.
This is a developing story—Bwog will continue to update it as need be with comments and information from necessary parties.
Butler Library via Bwog Archives
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3 Comments
@TOD HOWARD HAWKS In the continuing wake of the Epstein pedophlia horror story, anything even remotely connected to one of the worst crimes, I believe, that can ever be committed is enough to ruin anyone’s life, including both the victim and the perpetrator, even if the latter is ultimatlely found to be innocent of such charges.
But, if I may, I’d like to offer what seem to me some incongruitities in this present case. Mr Velez is 56. Does it seem incongruous to anybody else that this is the first time in his life that he has been charged with this heinous crime? It seems to me that if one is prone to such aberrant and abhorrent behavior, one would not wait until your mid-50s to act for the first time on these impulses; and if that’s true, wouldn’t one think that a sizable number of the multitple victims (e.,g. Epstein’s 100+ victims) would have come forward already. But in what I have read abount Mr. Velez, this is the first time he has been charged with the crime of pedophilia, all of which seems terribly strange to me.
@Anonymous Sounds like this was an over reaction and aggressive call and a misunderstanding by a friend of his daughters. Men get blamed for anything these days if they look at someone funny.
@Anonymous >Why come John Wayne Gacy never charged with murder before?
Another smoothbrain take from Todd. Unsurprisingly, this time it’s to defend a pedophile.