Appearing with his attorney for only a few minutes, Oakdale Joint Unified School District Substitute Teacher Bryan Thies pleaded not guilty on Monday to two counts of felony lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14 and three misdemeanor charges of annoying or molesting a child.

Thies is a former substitute with the district; he is no longer employed by OJUSD.

Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge John Whiteside allowed Thies to remain free on bail and scheduled a pretrial hearing for Thursday, Oct. 17.

On Sept 4, Oakdale Police Investigators were notified by Cloverland Elementary School staff about an allegation that Thies inappropriately touched five students at the school. Thies, 48, surrendered to Oakdale Police on Monday Sept. 23 after investigators made several attempts to contact him at his Modesto residence.

Police state the incident occurred during class on Aug. 29, when Thies was at the school as a substitute teacher and inappropriately touched five girls, ages 10 and 11.

At the time of his arrest, school officials confirmed Thies was a “standard” substitute teacher for grades kindergarten through 12 and also stated that he is no longer employed with the district.

In 2008, Thies was the subject of a disciplinary action by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing from an incident in Merced for “immoral or unprofessional conduct” and his teaching credential was briefly suspended. Records from the incident show he was on a mandatory leave of absence due to a “charge filed for a commission of a sex offense.”