A FEMALE cop has been accused of sleeping with a 13-year-old boy while working as a teaching assistant.
Maria Velez is said to have had sex with the underage pupil multiple times for almost a year.
Now a judge has banned the wannabe FBI agent from having any contact with him after she reportedly told him to lie to detectives probing the allegations.
Velez became a cop after quitting her job at Clark Elementary School, Cleveland, Ohio, in December, 2015.
She had sex with the student during the previous nine months, said prosecutors.
The 24-year-old has been charged with sexual battery.
An investigation into the allegations started last month, an arrest warrant said.
Velez then reportedly tried to get the student to lie to cops on the case.
It has not been disclosed what triggered the inquiry or where Velez’s alleged liaisons with the lad took place.
She was mostly recently assigned to patrols in the city’s Fifth District before her arrest.
She has been suspended without pay, police spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Velez was hired at Clark Elementary in October 2014 as a bilingual instructional aide after studying psychology and Spanish at uni, according to her school personnel file.
She said in a Linkedin profile while studying: “My overall objectives in life are to graduate from John Carroll University and then become an F.B.I. Agent.”
School district spokeswoman Roseann Canfora said: “The allegation did not surface when she was an employee of the district.
“However, when the allegation surfaced recently against the former employee, the information was referred to Cleveland Police and the Department of Children and Family Services.”
The case will go before a Cuyahoga County grand jury to decide how it will proceed.
Police Union President Steve Loomis said: “Like all Americans, Officer Velez is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
“A rush to judgement is speculative, not warranted. We trust in our criminal justice system.”
