NEW YORK—A city inspector has been charged with lying about checking on a construction crane that collapsed 11 days later, killing seven people in a dense Manhattan neighborhood.

Edward Marquette, 46, was arraigned and released without bail Thursday on charges of falsifying business records and offering a false instrument for filing.

“We will not tolerate this kind of behavior at the Department of Buildings,” buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster said at a news conference. “I do not and will not tolerate any misconduct in my department.”

Marquette, who earns $52,283 a year as an inspector in the department’s division of cranes and derricks, was arrested Wednesday night, said Barbara Thompson, spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney.

Marquette, dressed casually in a black leather jacket, said nothing during his arraignment in state Supreme Court. If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison.

The Department of Buildings said Marquette conducted about 500 inspections in the past six months.

The 20-story crane broke away Saturday from an apartment tower under construction and toppled over, killing six construction workers and a visitor in town for St. Patrick’s Day.

A complaint about the crane was logged March 4 to a city hot line, officials said, and Marquette said he inspected it. It was later determined he had not.

Lancaster said it is very unlikely that a March 4 inspection would have prevented the accident because parts of the crane that failed 11 days later were not on site then. The crane was inspected the day before the collapse, she said.