AUBURN – A Lewiston man accused of kidnapping one girl and attempting to lure others into his car last month pleaded innocent Friday to five criminal charges.

Jeremy McCown, 22, stood with his back hunched and his head down as Justice Ellen Gorman asked him how he would plead to charges of kidnapping, criminal restraint and three counts of assault.

For each charge, he mumbled, “Not guilty, your honor.”

McCown has been in Androscoggin County Jail since Aug. 29, when he was charged with driving around Lewiston Middle School while attempting to get young girls in his car.

Gorman set McCown’s bail at $10,000 cash or $20,000 in property. As conditions of his bail, he is barred from having contact with any girls under 18 and he cannot go within 1,000 feet of any school in Maine.

Police say McCown was driving near Lewiston Middle School on Aug. 28 when he called a 13-year-old girl to his car and pulled her inside. He is accused of fondling the girl and making sexual comments to her as he drove around the neighborhood.

That accusation resulted in the kidnapping and criminal restraint charges. The three assault charges stem from allegations that McCown intentionally caused injury to that girl and that he twice tried to force another girl into his car.

The day after police received reports that a man had been circling near the middle school, officers were sent to the Central Avenue area in marked and unmarked cars the following day.

After learning that McCown was seen driving in the area, and after hearing more reports of attempted abductions, police went to McCown’s workplace and arrested him.

He faces up to 40 years in prison for the kidnapping charge alone.

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