A 56-year-old man pleaded not guilty Wednesay to sex-related charges involving four girls in the 1990s and a fifth in 2012.
Felipe Bautista was charged Mar. 13 with two felony counts of continuous sexual abuse, along with one felony count of committing a lewd act on a child and three felony counts of lewd acts on a child 14 or 15.
The criminal complaint alleges that all but one the crimes occurred between January 1990 and December 1999, while the remaining crime allegedly occurred in November 2012.
Bautista, who was arrested Feb. 14 by detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department's Mission Division, was ordered held in lieu of $2.1 million bail while awaiting his next court appearance.
Police believe the crimes began in the early 1990s while Bautista was living in Pacoima and that he may have victimized children from different families, according to an LAPD statement.
The charges stem from an extensive investigation after the first alleged victim came forward, according to police, who asked anyone with information about the case to call Mission Area Sex Assault Detective Kittle at (818) 838-9810 or Detective Santa at (818) 838-9800.
