Premier Dr. Ewart Brown's son pleaded not guilty in a Los Angeles Superior Court yesterday to 23 felony charges of sex crimes against eight female patients.

Kevin Antario Brown, 37, who remains in custody on $4 million bail, has been charged with the alleged offences which are said to have occurred from November 2006 to June this year. District Attorney Ann Marie Wise also said yesterday that eight new victims were still under investigation and four victims have not yet been interviewed.

She said she anticipates more charges will be filed but not until the investigation is completed on all new alleged victims.

Eight of the 23 charges filed yesterday included sexual battery by fraud and are said to have happened while the patients were unconscious. Ten counts were for sexual exploitation by a physician.

Other charges include a lewd act against a 15-year-old female patient, an alleged rape and two charges of penetration by a foreign object. If convicted of the 23 charges, he faces up to 25 years in state prison.

Yesterday, Brown, who is a physician at his Crenshaw Expo Medical Center, on Crenshaw Boulevard in Los Angeles also faced a hearing that could revoke or suspend his medical licence. That hearing, however, has been postponed until September 4 after Brown's attorney's requested a judge rather than Court Commissioner Henry Hall, who heard the case yesterday, hear the motion.

Yesterday two rows of the court room were filled with Brown's family and friends, including his wife, to hear the 45-minute session.

Brown, standing in an orange jumpsuit, was kept behind a Plexiglas barrier from where he could communicate with his three lawyers and only responded once himself, saying: "Yes your honour".

The 37-year-old was originally arrested on July 8 after a year-long sex sting where an 18-year-old patient — and an undercover cop posing as a patient — alleged assault. He was bailed on $50,000 only to be arrested a second time in two weeks on July 21 when six new alleged victims came forward.

Brown was then remanded on $4 million bail by Commissioner Hall, for fear he was a flight risk after learning that his father was the Premier of Bermuda.

Commissioner Hall had also requested that Brown reveal sources of the bail money after an affidavit linked Brown to an investigation into medical fraud schemes and overprescribing painkillers.

Brown will appear in court on September 9 for a preliminary hearing on the 23 felony charges and his medical licence hearing will take place September 4.

The father-of-two made headlines recently in relation to the Department of Tourism's sponsorship of a celebrity poker tournament at the Los Angeles Playboy Mansion in May.

His charity, the Urban Health Institute of Los Angeles, was the beneficiary of the event. Premier Brown attended the event, which was presided over by Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, and donated prizes of three trips to Bermuda in partnership with Elbow Beach Hotel.

Kevin Brown the child of a previous relationship of Dr. Brown's and was born, raised and schooled in the US. Prior to these charges, Brown who graduated from the Howard School of medicine in 1997, had a clean record.