FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - The trial against a former custodian and assistant coach who allegedly sexually abused a then-Coral Springs Middle School student enters its second day at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale.
The teen’s mother took the witness stand Thursday afternoon.
She said after that day in the gym, when her son came back home, her son’s behavior was different, and she knew that something was wrong. The mother said she continued to press her son until he finally told her the events of that day.
On Wednesday, prosecutors said Robert Grant became a mentor to the teen when he was 15 years old, helping him with schoolwork and conditioning him for sports.
The teen, now 17, said the abuse began at the parking lot of a post office in the summer of 2017, when then 27-year-old Grant applied Tiger Balm to his groin area to treat a track injury and groped him.
The victim said Grant groped him at least 10 times.
“We went to the park,” he said. “He knew I was hurt, so he tried to say, ‘You gotta get the blood pumping in my body,’ and he basically stretched me one-on-one. He used to touch my penis.”
In October 2017, the teen said Grant performed oral sex on him in the school gym.
Prosecutors played a controlled 15-minute phone call between Grant and the victim about the stretching, which Grant apologized for and said he would never do again.
The victim said Grant went inside of his shorts and touched him before it got worse.
“He told me to pull down my pants,” he said. “He used lotion and started [expletive] my penis.”
Grant never apologized for the inappropriate touching or performing oral sex on the teen, said the teen.
Jim Lewis, Grant’s attorney, said the teen fabricated the sexual abuse allegations against the coach as a way of lashing out at his coach and mentor.
Another alleged victim came forward and said the same abuse happened to him when he was in sixth grade.
Grant denied a plea bargain that would allow him to serve 15 years in prison. He faces life behind bars if convicted.
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