San Diego
A judge refused Tuesday to lower bail for Ernest Booker Brown, a Knox Elementary School teacher charged with 30 sex crimes against two female students.
Brown, 47, remains in County Jail in lieu of $300,000 bail, after Superior Court Judge Jesus Rodriguez said the bail amount was appropriate.
Brown is to go on trial June 15 on charges of molesting the girls, both 12, who testified against him in a closed preliminary hearing last month.
His attorney, Alex Landon, cited Brown’s ties to the community in arguing for a bail of $25,000.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Aaron Katz, noting that he had filed two additional child molestation counts against Brown on Tuesday, unsuccessfully asked that bail be raised to $400,000.
“The defendant is facing 70 years if convicted,” Katz said.
The prosecutor said Brown had a child molestation conviction in Florida in 1977 when he was a teacher there.
Brown was arrested Nov. 30 at the Southeast San Diego school where he was teaching fourth- and fifth-graders.
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