FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A former physical education teacher and baseball coach accused of behaving like a child predator while working with boys for more than a decade, faced more alleged victims in court Friday.
David Solomon, a father of two who was jailed on July 23, 2015, was in a Broward County courtroom in Fort Lauderdale, when two men testified against him. They talked about their alleged memories of abuse when they were boys under his care.
Solomon, one of the men said, used wrestling matches and car rides to touch him. He also watched the boys when they were changing into their baseball team uniforms, another alleged victim said.
"There was physical contact. It would usually lead to him placing me on his lap in the roller chair of his office," the unidentified victim said.
Solomon established a record of sex abuse allegations before the pending cases of 11-year-old boys in Broward County court, prosecutors said. Records show he is facing sexual battery and lewd or lascivious molestation charges in 18 cases.
Some of his alleged victims said they were now old enough to stand up for themselves and testify on Friday.
"He would give me wedgies and when he gave me wedgies his hand would slip into my backside or whatever you want to call that," said another man, who was wearing a wedding band.
They had the opportunity to testify after two 11-year-old boys -- who met Solomon when they were in the Optimist Club's baseball team in Cooper City -- told authorities the abuse happened during car rides and sleepovers.
During a hearing late last year, prosecutor Patyl Oflazian said another seven alleged victims claimed Solomon had abused them after the two Broward County boys came forward.
About 16 years ago, three boys claimed he abused them in Miami-Dade. One was a student at Hialeah Gardens Elementary, where Solomon worked as a physical education teacher. And the other two played baseball at the Miami Shores Village Recreation Center, where he was a coach.
Prosecutors in Miami-Dade County dropped the molestation charges against him in 2000, because there weren't any witnesses or physical evidence. In the case of the two Broward County boys, Solomon's attorney, Eric Schwartzreich, has made the same argument.