By Jennifer Warren
An official from a Forest Hills-based soccer league has been charged with sodomizing two 11-year-old boys in his Elmont, L.I. home, the Nassau County district attorney said this week.
Fernando Colman, 35, of 2179 Ludlam Ave., the vice president of Argentina Soccer School, was arraigned in Nassau County Court Friday on two charges of sodomy in the first degree, two charges of sexual abuse in the second degree and one count of endangering the welfare of a child, said DA spokesman Rick Hinshaw.
Colman pleaded not guilty, the DA said. If convicted, Colman could serve up to 53 years in prison.
Since the arrest the Nassau police have launched a joint investigation with the Queens Special Victims Unit. Police suspect there may be several more incidents of abuse on the team involving boys from Queens, said Nassau Police Detective Sgt. Louis Algieri.
The soccer team is made up of 54 players, including boys from Corona, Elmhurst, Flushing, Jamaica and other parts of Queens, Algieri said.
“We’re not saying he molested 54 kids. We’re looking at possibly seven or eight that we’re going to talk to,” Algieri said.
“A lot of times the kids don’t want to come forward. They’re afraid, intimidated,” he said. “And if the kids don’t tell the parents, there’s no way for us to know. Usually when it occurs there are no witnesses.”
Colman, although not a coach, chaperoned the boys for about two years on road trips throughout New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania to and from soccer tournaments.
He allegedly abused the boys separately in his home in March and April, according to the complaint. The arrest occurred after one of the alleged victims told his mother, who in turn called the Nassau police, Algieri said.
“We then took it to the Special Victims squad. From there it stemmed to other victims,” Algieri said.
The team often practiced at PS 220, the Edward Mandel School at 62-10 108 St. in Forest Hills, according to a soccer team permit the police had confiscated.
Ron Levine, a spokesman for School District 28, which oversees PS 220, said “we have no information on that.” Principal Arlene Otlin said there was no connection between the soccer team and PS 220 students.
“I can tell you it does not involve us,” she said.
The Argentina Soccer School lists an office Thornton Place, a large residential complex in Forest Hills.
Guillermo Chajet, a parent of two boys in the league and the group’s treasurer, said Colman was very popular with players and parents.
“I’m totally shaken, surprised,” Chajet said. “It was a situation that you can never imagine — someone that is there in the group with such a nice, friendly personality to have committed these alleged violations.”
He said concerned parents were making a series of phone calls to one another as they learned of the investigation.
Fernando Colman’s mother, Sofia Colman, when reached by telephone said in Spanish that she had just returned from the hospital, was in poor health and “will keep quiet until it is time to speak.”
Reach reporter Jennifer Warren by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 155.
