A Broward high school teacher is charged with the sexual battery of a student
When Hollywood police came to the door of Flanagan High teacher Philip Velez Saturday night, they say he told them he was inside with his girlfriend.
And, police say, to his mind, the 28-year-old Velez wasn’t lying — he thought of the 17-year-old Flanagan student in the apartment with him as his girlfriend.
That didn’t prevent Velez from being arrested and charged with three counts of sexual battery by an adult on a victim between ages 12 and 18 and one count of being an authority figure engaging in sexual conduct with a student.
Velez’s bond was set at $85,000 after a bond hearing, shown on WPLG-Channel 10, at which Velez’s attorney argued if this were 60 days in the future, there would be no alleged crime because the alleged victim would be 18.
The state argued that Velez is a teacher who should “be protecting children, not engaging in sexual relationships with them.”
Broward County Public Schools says Velez was hired July 25, 2019, as a teacher at the Pembroke Pines high school and “is currently active.” His LinkedIn page says he’s a culinary instructor and is an assistant basketball coaching intern.
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Meeting and later meetings
An arrest affidavit says the girl told police she and Velez began texting each other after a November fundraising event. After meeting a few times outside school, he invited her to his apartment in December and they began a sexual relationship.
The arrest form says Velez told police “he considered [the girl] his girlfriend and that he has been in a romantic relationship with her since December 2021” and “he began to have feelings for [her] and they eventually began to have a sexual relationship.”
Still, “Velez said they had spoken about the fact that it was wrong to be together” because of the girl’s age.
The girl, according to the arrest form, was acting “suspiciously” enough that her older sister mentioned something to their father Saturday. The older sister also told her father the girl’s cellphone locator put her at a Van Buren Street single-floor apartment building.
The girls’ father called Hollywood police, who went to Velez’s apartment around 9:15 p.m.
“She said they were having vaginal intercourse, without a condom, when the police knocked at the door,” the arrest affidavit says.
