Villanova student accused of sexual assault faces additional charges

A Villanova University sophomore who was accused last week of forcing a female classmate to perform a sex act on him now faces additional criminal charges, prosecutors in Delaware County said Tuesday.

Iyanu Solomon, 19, was charged with indecent assault and harassment after another female student at the university filed a report with campus police following news coverage of his earlier arrest. He remained in custody Tuesday in lieu of 10% of $250,000 bail.

Solomon’s attorney, Daniel Bush, said the Maryland native will “vigorously fight to prove his innocence.”

“As with the other charges that allegedly occurred 18 months before being filed by the police, despite the fact that the accuser and Mr. Solomon saw each other frequently at the university, these new charges are also only allegations,” Bush said, referring to the charges of attempted sexual assault and related offenses prosecutors filed against Solomon on March 9. “I don’t believe that just because there is smoke, there is fire. That’s not how our system works.”

The woman in the latest case told police Solomon propositioned her in August while repeatedly touching her, despite her pleas for him to stop, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.

The student, a friend of Solomon’s roommate at Villanova, was in the dorm room the two men shared after letting her friend borrow her car, the affidavit said. As she waited for him to return, she said she was watching TV on a couch with Solomon, who asked her if she wanted to perform a sex act on him. The girl told detectives she refused multiple times, but Solomon was persistent, and began touching her thigh.

She said she then left the room, and locked herself into a bedroom until her friend returned with her vehicle, the affidavit said. She told campus police she never visited the dorm again, and tried to avoid Solomon, who routinely messaged her on social media applications.

Solomon’s arrest in this case, as well as last week’s sexual-assault charges, have disqualified him from an advanced rehabilitation diversionary program he was admitted to last year in a separate criminal case, according to a spokesperson for District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer.

That program, meant for first-time offenders, would have spared him from facing criminal charges in a February 2020 burglary at Villanova’s campus, in which police say he and another student were caught stealing equipment from the Jake Nevin Field House. The items Solomon stole were worth nearly $1,400, according to court documents.

Solomon will now face felony burglary and related charges in connection with that incident.