DOCUMENT: Sex, Crime

Underage Sex Suspect Alleges Girl Drugged Him

Man, 39, claimed not to recall encounters

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Drugging Claim

JUNE 14--A man arrested for having sex with an underage girl told police that he could not recall the illicit encounters and accused the teenager of “drugging” him, according to court records.

During an interview yesterday at a Florida hospital, the 16-year-old girl told cops that Damon Laziman, 39, picked her up earlier this month when she “sought to escape her current home life situation.”

Over the past week, the girl told investigators, she engaged in sexual activity with Laziman on several occasions, adding that he had recorded one of their encounters.

When cops confronted Laziman, he denied having sex with the girl and allowed officers to examine his phone for evidence. That review, an arrest affidavit notes, turned up two videos showing Laziman having sex with the minor.

Pictured above, Laziman initially denied he was the man seen in the clips, but relented since “it was clearly him, identified by tattoos,” cops reported.

But Laziman then claimed he “didn’t remember it happening,” according to the affidavit, and “accused her of drugging him.” To this allegation, police responded that Laziman “appeared lucid and in a good frame of mind” on the confiscated videos.

Charged with unlawful sex with a minor, Laziman is being held on $25,000 bond on the felony count. Laziman, a Vero Beach resident whose occupation is listed as “cook” in jail records, is next due in court on July 27. (1 page)