FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A former youth baseball coach in Cooper City, who is accused of molesting two boys, declined a plea deal Friday that would have sentenced him to 25 years in prison.
David Solomon agreed to consolidate the two criminal cases against him and is charged with 18 felony sexual battery and molestation counts.
Solomon was arrested in July 2015 after two 11-year-old boys who played in the Cooper City Optimist League with Solomon's son claimed that the coach had inappropriately touched them.
According to arrest reports, Solomon touched the boys' genitals and buttocks.
Detectives said the sex acts happened in Solomon's car and at sleepovers at the coach's home.
Solomon was previously arrested on molestation charges in 2000 while working as a physical education teacher at Hialeah Gardens Elementary School.
In that case, Solomon and his attorneys claimed that the boys, who were under the age of 14, were lying. One of the boys eventually recanted his claims, and the state dropped the charges against Solomon.
Two of the alleged victims, who are now adults, will testify during Solomon's trial and two will be excluded.
Solomon is being held at the Paul Rein Detention Facility in Pompano Beach. His trial is scheduled for April 17.
Solomon faces a mandatory life sentence if he is convicted on at least one of the four sexual battery charges against him.