Teacher Will Stand Trial on Sex Charges : Courts: Fallbrook band instructor accused of having unlawful intercourse with two students waives his right to a preliminary hearing.

Fallbrook High School band teacher Kevin McLean was ordered Monday to stand trial in Vista Superior Court on charges of having unlawful sexual intercourse with two students, including a 17-year-old in the band room during practice hours.

McLean, 32, waived his right to a preliminary hearing and was ordered to return to court next month for his arraignment. He remains free on bail, but is on compulsory leave of absence from his job and will forfeit his pay if convicted, officials say.

McLean’s attorney, Robert Boyce, said the unmarried music teacher chose to forgo the preliminary hearing--at which a judge decides whether there is enough evidence to order the defendant to stand trial--because “we know what the girls were going to say, from the police report. There’s no reason to have the prosecutor call them as witnesses and put them through more trauma.”

Among the evidence the San Diego County district attorney’s office was prepared to offer Monday was a tape recording of a conversation between McLean and the then-17-year-old, prosecutor Kate Elkin said.

The girl was wired with a tape recorder after sheriff’s detectives entered the case, Elkin said, and the results of that recording “are very explicit and very strong for the prosecution.”

Elkin said she wasn’t surprised that McLean opted against the preliminary hearing.

“They’re fully aware of the strength of the prosecution’s case, and, tactically, they probably didn’t want to have additional media focus on the people’s evidence,” she said.

McLean is accused of having sex with the 17-year-old on four occasions during the spring of 1991, and faces four counts of unlawful sexual intercourse, two counts of oral copulation of a person under 18 and two counts of digital penetration.

“He was spending a lot of time with a student of his, a very vulnerable student of his, and they had increasing contact,” Elkin said. “He became sexually aggressive in their relationship and took advantage of the vulnerable female student’s emotional feelings.”

Last winter, Elkin said, McLean seduced a 16-year-old off-campus, and faces one count of unlawful sexual intercourse, one count of oral copulation and one count of digital penetration.

The investigation into McLean began after the older student confided to a school counselor, who, by state law, was required to report the conversation to authorities. Through that investigation, detectives learned of the second victim, Elkin said.

If convicted of all the charges, McLean faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in state prison.