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Eric Chirchir — who turned 31 years old today — entered the women’s locker room at the Bogota Golf Center, where he worked, and assaulted the teen there, Bogota Police Capt. James Sepp told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
Police responding moments later to a call from another golf center employee spotted Chirchir, who took off — leaving his bicycle and backpack behind — and “ran all the way home,” he said.
Based on his best time, a straight run would have taken him roughly 15 minutes.
Eric Kipkmei Chirchir — who also uses the name Abyot E. Worku — was being held on $100,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged by detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and local police with criminal sexual contact, child endangerment, resisting/eluding and obstruction.
ICE also issued a detainer for possible deportation proceedings based on the arrest.
The 5-foot-8-inch, 127-pound Chirchir, who competes professionally in marathons, 10Ks, road races, and other events around the U.S. and the world, has a marathon best time of 2 minutes 14 seconds in Israel, records show (Dennis Kimetto, also of Kenya, set the world record of 2 hours 2 minutes and 57 seconds at the Berlin Marathon two months ago).
Chirchir holds several first-place finishes in races of various distances, including the Scotland 10K (6.2 miles) in Central Park two years ago, and is listed as a record holder in several cities, including a 10K mark in Austin, Texas, of 29 minutes 3 seconds.
A high-school graduate originally from Kapsabet in the Rift Valley, Chirchir is single and has a daughter.
He said he began running when he was 20 at the urging of friends after reading a biography of Ethiopian legend Haile Gebrselassie.
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