Camp Aide to Stand Trial on Charges of Molestation : Allegations: Hawthorne man is accused of sexually abusing two 10-year-old boys and attempting to abuse another. The defendant’s father says the children made up the story as a prank.

A Hawthorne man was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on charges that he molested two 10-year-old boys and attempted to molest a third last summer at the Hawthorne Youth Camp in the Angeles National Forest.

At a preliminary hearing, Antelope Municipal Court Judge Ian Grant ordered James Lowell Taylor, 24, to stand trial Nov. 24 in Lancaster Superior Court on three felony counts of lewd acts with a child and a misdemeanor count of child annoying.

Taylor, a former teacher’s aide, is being held in the Lancaster Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail. He could face up to 13 years in state prison if convicted.

Two of the boys who bunked in a cabin that Taylor helped supervise at the city-run camp in the Big Pines area will testify that Taylor attempted to masturbate them, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Pamela Rhodes-Rogers. A third boy, who stayed in a different cabin, will say Taylor made a lewd overture toward him, she said.

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Taylor was arrested by Hawthorne police officers last month after Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigators from the Santa Clarita station launched an investigation into the boys’ allegations.

Taylor’s father, James Taylor Sr., said he believes the boys fabricated the charges as a prank against his son, an Air National Guardsman and aspiring educational administrator.

“This came totally out of the clear blue sky, not only for him but for our entire family,” said Taylor Sr., who said his son mentioned in early August that he was “having some trouble with some campers and was thinking of sending them home.”

“For instance, he told them they have to go to bed and they cussed back and said they don’t have to,” Taylor Sr. said. “He tried to place one of them in bed and the child kicked him. Maybe this is how they came up with their scenario.”

But Rhodes-Rogers dismissed the possibility that the boys made up the allegations, pointing out that one of the boys does not know the other two.

“When it’s an independent report, it seems to indicate that collusion is not an issue,” Rhodes-Rogers said. “We don’t just file on every charge that comes through the door. It seems to me we have a case here that we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Taylor was one of 10 counselors hired by the city of Hawthorne to work at the camp this summer, said Robert Klein, director of the Hawthorne Department of Parks and Recreation. Like all employees for the city, Taylor’s background was checked before he was hired, Klein said.

The city of Hawthorne has operated a youth camp for children ages 7 to 12 every July and August for more than 30 years, Klein said. The camp, which draws students from all over the South Bay, holds six regular sessions and one family session, each of which runs Monday through Friday.

Taylor’s father said his son, who was enrolled at Cal State Dominguez Hills last semester, took the summer job to help pay for college. Earlier this year, Taylor worked as a teacher’s aide for the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Paseo del Rey Fundamental Magnet School, an elementary school in Marina del Rey. He resigned in June, school authorities said.

In September, Taylor was hired as a teacher’s aide in the Hermosa Beach City School District but was terminated two weeks later after he “failed to reach the probationary standards,” said Supt. Gwen Gross. Taylor had no contact with students during that period and his dismissal, long before his arrest, was not related to the pending charges, she said.