New Jersey Y Fires Maintenance Worker Charged with Sexual Assault

The Ridgewood (NJ) YMCA recently fired a maintenance worker who was charged with sexually assaulting a teenager several years earlier.

According to a statement from the Y reported by The Record of Bergen County (NJ) earlier this month, Abelardo Ramirez had worked part-time as a joint employee of the Ridgewood YMCA and YWCA in Bergen County for five months ending Feb. 7. Prior to his employment at the Y, Ramirez had worked for almost two years as an employee of a company that cleans the facility, the Y added.

The newspaper reported Ramirez was arrested Feb. 17 and charged with aggravated and criminal sexual assault, as well as endangering a minor. Ramirez is accused of assaulting the teen, who is now 23, for a period of three years until she turned 18.

The Y stated it had no concerns related to background checks on Ramirez and added the alleged incident did not occur at the Y or during the time he worked in the building.

Ramirez was employed as a maintenance worker at a local school at the time of his arrest, the newspaper reported. The school has since terminated him.