Man Pleads Not Guilty in Sex Assaults : Ojai Valley: An April 25 preliminary hearing is scheduled for Kevin Richard Malone, 37. He is accused of 25 felony charges.

A man accused of committing a string of sexual assaults in the Ojai Valley pleaded not guilty Thursday to 25 felony charges.

An April 25 preliminary hearing was scheduled for Kevin Richard Malone, 37, who is charged with sexually assaulting four women and targeting two other women in a burglary and attempted burglary.

Malone, who is in jail with bail set at $500,000, is the second man to be charged with the assaults. Charges were dismissed against the first suspect after genetic tests ruled him out as the assailant, but sheriff’s officials have said they have “a substantial amount of physical and genetic evidence� implicating Malone.

However, prosecutors have refused to comment on what evidence they have, saying they do not want to jeopardize their case. Defense attorney Willard Wiksell could not be reached for comment after Thursday’s arraignment.

Malone has been in custody since Jan. 22, when he was arrested on suspicion of looking into a woman’s window at the Tradewinds Apartments in Ventura, officials said.

Twice convicted of peeping, Malone has undergone treatment as a sex offender. He currently is serving a seven-month jail sentence on a misdemeanor peeping conviction.

At the time of his arrest, he had a beard and was driving a blue pickup truck with a camper shell, according to a police report. Those details matched descriptions of the Ojai assailant, authorities said.

Because Malone already was in custody on the peeping case, prosecutors waited until DNA tests were completed before charging him with the assaults. That contrasted with the action taken after the first suspect was arrested, when charges were filed within days of the man’s arrest so he could be kept in custody.

Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury issued a rare public apology to the 21-year-old Casitas Springs man after he was cleared as a suspect.

The sexual assaults, which occurred between March and September of last year, frightened residents of the Ojai Valley and sparked community meetings to warn women how to protect themselves.

The attacks began March 13, 1994, when a 44-year-old woman was raped about 3 a.m. in her house on Pueblo Avenue in Meiners Oaks. On April 16, 1994, a 61-year-old woman was badly beaten when she fought off a man who entered her home on Carillo Road in Ojai about 1:30 a.m.

After that foiled attack, no other incidents were reported for five months. According to court records, Malone was arrested on suspicion of prowling during that five-month break.

Then, on Sept. 2, a man matching the same description assaulted a 64-year-old woman before dawn in her home on Taormina Lane in west Ojai. The woman escaped after about 45 minutes by jumping out a window and screaming for help.

Hours later, a 54-year-old woman was attacked at the east end of town in her home on El Jina Lane.