Maria Velez #sexist cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland police officer accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old student while she was his teacher's aide at an elementary school made her first appearance on Friday.

Patrol Officer Maria Velez, who is charged with third-degree felony sexual battery, was stoic throughout the short hearing.

Cleveland Municipal Judge Michelle Earley set her bond at $10,000 and ordered her have not contact with the victim in the case.

Assistant County Prosecutor Brian Murphy asked the judge for the no-contact order because Velez is accused of contacting the boy after she learned of the investigation and asked him to lie to detectives.

Defense attorney Daniel Misiewicz unsuccessfully argued for a personal bond, citing her lifelong status as a Cleveland resident, her job as a Cleveland police officer and her education. The case was bound over to a Cuyahoga County grand jury that will decide how the case will proceed.

Velez was suspended without pay from the police department following her arrest on Thursday. She was assigned to the city's Fifth District.

She worked as an instructional aide at Clark Elementary School when she had sex with multiple times with the boy between March and December 2015, according to court records

Velez resigned from her $31,000-per-year post at the school after she was hired Dec. 11, 2015 as a patrol officer, according to her school district personnel file.

Velez was hired at Clark Elementary in October 2014, shortly after graduating from John Carroll University in 2014 with a degree in psychology and a minor in Spanish, according to her school district personnel file. She graduated from John Hay Early College High School in 2010.

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