A Hermosa Beach resident facing five counts of lewd conduct with a minor rejected a plea deal presented by the district attorney’s office last Thursday at the Torrance Superior Courthouse. The case will now go to trial Nov. 4.

Christen Kacher, 34, is accused of engaging in sexual relations with a then-13-year-old boy whom he met via the Internet.

On Oct. 22, Kacher turned himself in at the Hermosa Beach Police station where officers had already obtained a warrant charging him with five counts of lewd conduct.

Kacher was last in court in late August when he waived his right to a preliminary hearing.

It was then that Kacher’s attorney, Robert Shapiro, who is known as the former lead attorney in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, advised his client that a hearing would be a waste of time because the boy would not testify but officers would have taken the witness stand and talked about what the boy told them.

Deputy District Attorney Jodi Link said the hearing did not warrant pulling the child out of school and, under state law, police officers have the right to testify on behalf of victims during preliminary hearings.

Kacher, a nuclear chemist and equity analyst, reportedly met the Orange County boy through a friend’s America Online e-mail account. He later met the teen-ager after exchanging photographs over the Internet.

According to Hermosa Beach Police Press Information Officer Paul Wolcott, the boy told police he engaged in more than 20 sexual encounters, all in the city of Hermosa Beach, beginning last March and ending three months later. The boy turned 14 during that time.

Wolcott said the boy’s mother noticed that her son was depressed. He eventually told her about the relationship with Kacher who allegedly broke off all ties with the boy following a last encounter together. She immediately contacted the Orange County Police who consulted with the Hermosa Beach Police.

Kacher was a former scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and later wrote a book on equity trading.