Following a December preliminary hearing, a 58-year-old Ukrainian national accused of child sex abuse and possessing child pornography will face more proceedings in the coming months in Solano County Superior Court in Fairfield.

After the hearing, Judge Carlos R. Gutierrez ruled there was enough evidence to order more court dates for Alexander Vitaly Bantov of San Francisco, a permanent U.S. resident who formerly lived in Canada. He will return at 8:30 a.m. April 27 for a trial readiness conference and at 8:30 a.m. May 8 for a trial management conference in the Justice Center.

Bantov, who remains in Solano County Jail custody, is charged with two counts of sex acts with a child 10 years old or younger; seven counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child; and one count of possessing pornographic images of a child.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, but, at trial, if found guilty of all of them, Bantov could be sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Bantov’s last attorney of record is Patrick E. Clancy, and Deputy District Attorney Shelly Moore has led the prosecution, according to court records.

During a proceeding last year, she challenged the defendant’s claim he could not afford a private attorney because, she said, Bantov owns a home in San Francisco likely worth more than $1 million.

During that same earlier proceeding, Bantov’s attorney at the time, John D. Forsyth of San Francisco, argued for release of his client from jail, with bail, citing several factors: his client’s high blood pressure; lack of a prior criminal record; ownership of the San Francisco home; and his responsibility for the caring of his elderly father in San Francisco.

Additionally, Forsyth noted Bantov has had no additional contact with the victims since his mid-September arrest in San Francisco by Vallejo police officers, and possessed a “green card,” a permit allowing a foreign national to live and work permanently in the United States.

But Moore told Commissioner Bryan J. Kim that police investigators noted a San Francisco neighbor of Bantov’s said the defendant had been trying to “sell his home for cash” and, therefore, may be a flight risk.

Kim denied Forsyth’s request for bail.

The mid-September arrest was not the first time Bantov was placed into custody in the case.

Court records indicate he was first arrested on Aug. 31 after police received a report at about 12:09 p.m. of a man fondling a minor inside the IHOP restaurant, at 114 Plaza Drive, in Vallejo.

Officers arrested Bantov, who, at the time, was in the company of two minors he was looking after. One of the minors was the same one that Bantov allegedly was seen fondling.

An additional patron of the restaurant also reported seeing Bantov inappropriately touching the minor, police said.

He was arrested and booked into the Solano CountyJjail on a count of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14. However, he apparently was released.

Almost two weeks later, on Sept. 12, detectives were able to successfully download and review the content of Bantov’s cell phone, according to a report by the Vallejo Times-Herald, a sister newspaper of The Reporter. Investigators found several images of child pornography. One of these photographs depicted Bantov involved in a lascivious act with one of the minors he was with at the IHOP, police said.

He was re-arrested the same day at his San Francisco home for child molestation and possession of child pornography.

Detectives have searched several electronic devices seized from Bantov’s residence. Additional images of child pornography have been located on those devices, police said.