Man pleads not guilty in sex case

Thursday, July 8, 2004 | 9:23 a.m.

A 40-year-old Las Vegas man accused of molesting two 13-year-old girls after luring them into a closet with a promise of lollipops pleaded not guilty Wednesday.

Timothy Ellerbe is charged with eight counts of lewdness with a child under the age of 14. He is scheduled to go to trial on Sept. 9.

Ellerbe was arrested on May 19 at his home near Spring Mountain Road and Durango Drive after a 13-year-old girl allegedly told a guidance counselor that Ellerbe had molested her on numerous occasions at his residence.

But Ellerbe's attorney, Robert Draskovich, contends that one of the victims has already testified in open court that "she lied (about where Ellerbe touched her) to the police and to her school counselor to make the case worse against" his client.

Ellerbe allegedly played a game with the girls called "wedgie" in which he would grab their underwear from the back and pull it up out of their pants, the police report says.

The girls went into Ellerbe's closet to get a box of lollipops and he allegedly followed them, the police report says. The report says he turned off the light, locked the door and molested them while they screamed.

After the girls managed to force their way out of the closet, Ellerbe persuaded one of the girls to talk to him in a bedroom and he allegedly molested her and told her not to tell anyone "because he could go to jail," according to the arrest report.

About a week later one of the girls was at Ellerbe's home and he allegedly groped her and she threatened to tell her father about his behavior if he didn't stop, according to the police report.