Updated 5:13 p.m.:
By Mirna Alfonso
A Lynwood man who works as a police officer at a state hospital's local branch made his first court appearance Thursday to answer to 12 sex-related criminal charges.
Mario Uribe Estrada, 41, pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles Superior Court to four counts each of lewd act on a child and sending harmful matter to a minor, three counts of sodomy of a person under 16 and one count of oral copulation of a person under 16.
His bail was set at $535,000 -- per the Los Angeles County District Attorney's request -- and he is due back in court next month when a date is scheduled to be set for a preliminary hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to warrant a trial.
-City News Service contributed to this report.
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By City News Service
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A police officer assigned to Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk was charged today with 12 sex-related counts involving a 14- year-old girl.
Mario Uribe Estrada, 41, is set to be arraigned this afternoon in Los Angeles Superior Court on four counts each of lewd act on a child and sending harmful matter to a minor, three counts of sodomy of a person under 16 and one count of oral copulation of a person under 16.
Estrada, who works for the California Department of State Hospitals, met the teen through "family and friends,'' and she was not connected with his place of employment, South Gate Police Capt. Darren Arakawa said.
Estrada was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon by the South Gate Police Department and remained jailed. The District Attorney's Office asked that his bail be set at $535,000. If convicted, Estrada faces up to seven years and four months in state prison.
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