A former teacher at Dehesa Elementary School accused of molesting several children over a decade pleaded not guilty Friday to eight felony counts of committing a lewd act on a child.
Robert Noel Anderson, 58, was ordered held on $800,000 bail.
He faces 22 years in prison if convicted.
Anderson is suspected of abusing the victims while teaching the fourth and sixth grades, according to Jan Caldwell of the county Sheriff’s Department.
She said that multiple cases were reported to the Sheriff’s Department between 2003 and 2013, which were investigated by the sheriff’s department’s Child Abuse Unit.
A criminal complaint and a warrant for Anderson’s arrest were issued on Wednesday, and he was taken into custody by members of the Fugitive Task Force at his residence in the Allied Gardens neighborhood in San Diego shortly after 6:30 a.m. Thursday, according to Caldwell.
A readiness conference is scheduled Oct. 16 and a preliminary hearing set for Oct. 27.
— City News Service
