Man, 69, faces arraignment Thursday on molestation charges

A 69-year-old special education teacher’s aide employed at Ramona High School was behind bars today on suspicion of molesting a 15-year-old boy over a several-month period.

Robert Buechner of Ramona was arrested at his workplace on Tuesday, according to police in Chula Vista, where the teen lives in a group home for at- risk youths.

Buechner, who is married and has several adult children, met the alleged victim through a member of the boy’s family, Capt. Gary Wedge said.

“The victim did not attend Ramona High, nor is there any reason to believe students at the school were also victimized,” the captain said.

The suspect, who has no known prior criminal history, allegedly committed the sex crimes at his home and in various other locations, including in Chula Vista, according to Wedge.

Buechner was booked on 16 child molestation counts, including sodomy, oral copulation, penetration with a foreign object, and lewd and lascivious acts with a person under age 16.

He was being held on $100,000 bail pending arraignment, scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

Buechner was employed part time at the high school until his resignation for personal reasons on March 20, said Robert Graeff, superintendent of the Ramona school district. A district employee since October 2004, Buechner resigned prior to his arrest on the same day in an assistant principal’s office at the high school, Graeff said.