Former coach and teacher accused of sexual assault has preliminary hearing
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Eric Fairman, the former youth sports coach and teacher accused of sexually assaulting at least 11 children, had a court date on Wednesday.
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Fairman waived the case against him to trial on Wednesday. His attorney, Charles Porter, said it was his strategy all along to save the alleged young victims from having to miss school and come to court and testify. More importantly, he said, to not be subjected to cross-examination.
Fairman is charged with sexually assaulting 11 different children between the ages of 10 and 12 over the past several years. Investigators say most of the alleged incidents happened at Fairman's house and out of the state.
Fairman worked as a math teacher at McKeesport Middle School and as a youth sports coach for girls basketball and boys baseball teams.
He's been held without bail in the Allegheny County Jail since his arrest in August.
Several of the charges against Fairman were dropped on Wednesday, including criminal use of a communication facility, promoting prostitution and statutory sexual assault. The most serious of charges were upheld.
"This judge wouldn't grant him bond originally," Porter said. "We didn't really have any confidence he'd throw any charges out if we had a hearing. We thought it was most prudent to try to clean up the cases, in some respect, and get some charges dropped and make it more manageable."
Investigators say they have several other potential incidents they're working on. They believe there could be more victims.
