A Santa Clarita man who’s a registered sex offender accused of harassing children is having the preliminary hearing in his case continued and will be back in court next month.

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Yale Yurman, 70, of Valencia, is facing child annoyance charges at three different locations in the Santa Clarita Valley, according to Deputy Josh Dubin of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station.

On Friday, the procedure known as discovery, where the evidence against Yurman is presented to a judge who determined if there’s enough to make Yurman formally face charges in a jury trial, was continued until Sept. 12.

Yurman is currently being held in lieu of $1 million bail.

Sheriff’s Station detectives were alerted to Yurman’s activities by Target loss-prevention officers, who received a report from customers and contacted deputies with their information.

Deputies were told a man was following a young girl and videotaping her while she was walking around inside Target located on Magic Mountain Parkway in Valencia in June.

Through proactive work by Target’s loss prevention, detectives were able to identify the suspect, Dubin said.

On Wednesday, detectives served a search warrant in the 23700 block of Hickory Court in Valencia.

Residents of the Belcaro housing community have contacted KHTS over concerns with Yurman’s alleged behavior.

Yurman has several known aliases, according to the Megan’s Law website, which include Steve Simonian, Dale Orin Pettit and Joseph Abendana.

He has several convictions listed on the Megan’s Law site, including annoying/molesting a child under the age of 18, lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age by force or fear and oral copulation with a minor under 14 years of age by use of force or fear.

Evidence was recovered which showed the suspect had been following young girls and videotaping them on several occasions.

These locations were identified as Target, Walmart and the Real Life Church in Valencia.

Another location was the Santa Monica pier, according to a Sheriff’s Station news release.

California’s Megan’s Law provides the public with certain information on the whereabouts of sex offenders so that members of our local communities may protect themselves and their children.

The law is not intended to punish the registrant and specifically prohibits using the information to harass or commit any crime against a registrant.

The Megan’s Law website at www.meganslaw.ca.gov has information regarding sex registrants living in your neighborhood.

The case is being prosecuted by Laura Knight-Jackson.

Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or drop us a line at community@hometownstation.com.

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