The Region - News from Feb. 20, 1986

A third-grade teacher in Riverside pleaded innocent to charges that he molested 20 girls in his classroom over the last two years. Christopher David Hewitt, 34, who had been named in an arrest warrant, surrendered and was arraigned in Riverside Municipal Court, Police Sgt. Dan Horton said. Hewitt was released on $15,000 bail. He is accused of molesting girls, ages 7 through 9, in his classroom at John Adams Elementary School. Hewitt has been suspended with pay since Nov. 18, three days after police began investigating reports from parents that their girls had been molested, a school official said. He is charged with 42 felony and six misdemeanor counts of child molestation, and one felony charge of child endangerment.