Bergen County Camp Worker Accused Of Sexually Assaulting Child

BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — A Queens man has been charged with aggravated sexual assault and other offenses that occurred while he worked at a youth camp in Bergen County, prosecutors said Friday.

The man is now being held on Rikers Island pending extradition to Bergen County, said the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office.

Jelani McKenzie, 32, of Queens was arrested Thursday on four counts of aggravated sexual assault, a count of endangering the welfare of a child, and three counts of aggravated criminal sexual contact, said prosecutors.

Prosecutors said that on Tuesday, July 23, 2024, the Alpine Police Department contacted the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit regarding the alleged sexual assault of a juvenile under the age of 16 that began in March of 2024.

An investigation by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and the Alpine Police Department determined that McKenzie, "while employed as a support services director at a youth camp, sexually assaulted a juvenile under the age of 16 in Alpine, NJ on multiple occasions," prosecutors said.

On Friday, July 26, 2024, detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit and the Alpine Police Department, alongside officers from the New York City Police Department and special agents from the FBI (New York Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force), arrested McKenzie in Queens.

He was taken into custody and held at Rikers Island pending extradition.