Alleged Valley Child Molester May Have More Victims: Police

LOS ANGELES, CA — Even as a 56-year-old man pleaded not guilty Wednesday to rape and child molestation in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles detectives called for additional victims to come forward.

Felipe Bautista was charged with numerous sex-related charges involving four girls in the 1990s and a fifth in 2012. Authorities believe he may have additional alleged victims as recently as last year.

"Felipe began his criminal career as a child molester in 1991 while living in Pacoima," according to a statement from the Los Angeles Police Department. "He victimized children from multiple families starting in 1991 and continued possibly through 2018."

Felipe Bautista was charged March 13 with two felony counts of continuous sexual abuse, along with one felony count of committing a lewd act on a child and three felony counts of lewd acts on a child 14 or 15.

The criminal complaint alleges that all but one the crimes occurred between January 1990 and December 1999, while the remaining crime allegedly occurred in November 2012.

Bautista, who was arrested Feb. 14 by detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department's Mission Division, was ordered held in lieu of $2.1 million bail while awaiting his next court appearance.

The charges stem from an extensive investigation after the first alleged victim came forward, according to police, who asked anyone with information about the case to call Mission Area Sex Assault Detective Kittle at (818) 838-9810 or Detective Santa at (818) 838-9800.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.