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By Lookout Staff

June 6 -- Santa Monica middle school Teacher Arthur Beltran pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that he molested three more girls, bringing to eight the total number of victims in a string of alleged crimes that dates back to 2000.

During his arraignment, the 60-year-old Lincoln Middle School Teacher was charged with nine additional counts of lewd acts with a child and continuous sexual abuse, according to the LA District Attorney’s Office.

The incidents took place between September 2000 and June 2004, said Deputy District Attorney Robin Sax Katzenstein of the Sex Crimes Division.

All the children were under the age of 14, Katzenstein said.

Beltran, who now faces a total of 23 felony counts, is in jail in lieu of $3.3 million bail.

Beltran, who has taught English as a Second Language (ESL) at the prestigious public middle school for two decades was arrested May 3 in Culver City after police interviewed a 12-year-old student who claimed Beltran sexually abused her. (“Lincoln Middle School Teacher Arrested for Molesting Students,” May 5)

The girl said her teacher sexually assaulted her repeatedly in the classroom.

Police concluded other students may have been molested and interviewed all the students at the school who had any connection with Beltran, local police said.

As a result of the investigation, Beltran was charged May 6 with eight counts of committing a lewd act on a child and three counts each of continuous sexual abuse and sexual penetration on a child under 14 with a foreign object.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges, which The crimes allegedly took place between December 2004 and April 2008. Beltran pleaded not guilty.

The story quickly made headlines up and down the state, and press and television crews swarmed the middle school campus.

The district offered counseling for students and met with worried parents.

A resident of Los Angeles, Beltran, who has worked in the district for 30 years, has been married 35 years.

His only child, who taught middle school students in Northern California, died of cancer four years ago at the age of 30.