By Justin Story, Bowling Green Daily News

A criminal case against a Bowling Green man accused of sexually assaulting and impregnating a juvenile remains scheduled for a trial beginning next month after a hearing Monday.

Orlando Bejarando-Diaz, 38, is under indictment on six counts of first-degree rape and one count each of incest and tampering with physical evidence.

City police suspect Bejarando-Diaz, who was arrested in 2020, of sexually assaulting a then-12-year-old girl in his care.

The case is set for trial on June 12.

During a pretrial conference Monday, defense attorney Jill Elkind of the Department of Public Advocacy informed Warren Circuit Judge John Grise that Bejarando-Diaz is not entertaining any plea offers to settle the case.

“We have talked about entering a plea of guilty and he’s not willing to enter a plea of guilty,” Elkind said.

Bejarando-Diaz has been in jail awaiting trial since his arrest on March 25, 2020, by the Bowling Green Police Department, which opened an investigation after learning of allegations of illegal sexual contact.

Police learned that a 12-year-old girl had been brought to The Medical Center on March 3, 2020, by Bejarando-Diaz.

According to an arrest citation, a nurse at the hospital told police that the girl was several weeks pregnant, and hospital staff learned that she was from Honduras, spoke little English and had been in the U.S. for less than a year.

Bejarando-Diaz denied knowledge of the pregnancy, and the girl initially refused to speak with police about the matter, but she was taken into protective custody.

During a session with a therapist on March, 9, 2020, the 12-year-old reportedly disclosed that Bejarando-Diaz had hurt her and she had delivered a baby at home, an arrest citation said.

In a subsequent interview at Barren River Area Child Advocacy Center, the girl alleged that she had been sexually assaulted multiple times over the past several months and had delivered the baby, who she suspected was stillborn, on or about the day she was taken to the hospital, court records show.

Bejarando-Diaz made no statements to police prior to his arrest and later underwent a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation.

He was found by Grise last year to be competent to stand trial and assist in his own defense.