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Sex Abuse Charge Dropped Against Teaching Aide Accused of Touching Boy: DA

By Trevor Kapp | October 6, 2017 6:08pm

BROOKLYN — Prosecutors have thrown out sex abuse charges against a former teaching assistant accused of inappropriate contact with a 5-year-old non-verbal boy inside a Bath Beach classroom.

Paraprofessional Alameldin Abdelrahim, 62, was fired from the Department of Education following the Sept. 14 incident inside P.S. 200 on Benson Avenue and Bay 22nd Street, where school staff witnessed the act, DOE officials and law-enforcement sources said.

Abdelrahim was initially charged with sex abuse and endangering the welfare of a child, but prosecutors dropped the sex abuse charge because they said they couldn’t prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

“While the allegations are disturbing, it was determined following a review of the case that the facts and the evidence aren’t legally sufficient to support the felony charges,” said Helen Peterson, a spokeswoman for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.

Abdelrahim was in a rocking chair reading to the boy when he placed his hands on the child's shoulders, according to a criminal complaint.

The boy leaned his head back into man's lap, and when Abdelrahim took his hands off the boy’s shoulder, a witness noticed the man was aroused, the complaint states.

He still faces charges for endangering the welfare of a child. He was released on $60,000 bail, records show.

The DOE said Abdelrahim's employment status remains terminated. 

His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.