High School Contractor Charged With Child Endangerment

A New Milford man was arrested Tuesday at and charged with endangering the welfare of a child and promoting obscene material, both third degree crimes, police said.

Matthew Levey, 22, a food service worker from an outside contractor, allegedly “engaged in conduct with a child under the age of 16, which would impair or debauch the morals of a juvenile,” police said.

“It involves the transmitting of images,” said Capt. Keith Bendul of the Fort Lee Police Department.

“Our school resource officer (SRO), who was in the school, received information from the school district of an incident,” Bendul said. “The SRO immediately launched an investigation, which led to the arrest.”

Levey was arraigned in Fort Lee Municipal Court by Judge John R. DeSheplo and released on $5,000 bail, police said.

“The safety of children is always the top priority of the ,” Bendul said. “We work with the school district, and this is the way the system is supposed to work. They get information, they let us know and we launch the investigation.”

The case is being referred to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, police said.

In a statement posted on the Fort Lee school district’s website Thursday afternoon, Interim Superintendent of Schools Steven Engravalle referred to Levey as “an employee of the third-party cafeteria vendor that services the Fort Lee Public Schools.”

“The Fort Lee Board of Education immediately ordered the removal of the charged cafeteria vendor employee from working in any of the District’s schools, and school officials are fully cooperating with the Fort Lee Police Department and the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office with respect to the investigation,” Engravalle said in the letter to parents, guardians and community members, urging anyone with information to contact the Fort Lee Police Department at 201-592-3700.