Three of four molestation charges against a Tracy pastor were dismissed at a hearing this morning, but Judge Ron A. Northup ruled there was enough evidence to try him on one felony count that he molested a teenage girl several years ago, and a prosecutor says new charges are coming.

The preliminary hearing for Reuben Lydell Mitchell, 43, lasted more than an hour in a Manteca courtroom, where 20-year-old woman testified that the pastor of the Koinenia Christ Community Church in Tracy often kissed, hugged and caressed her inappropriately, and once touched her breasts and vagina in a car ride when she was 16.

Two girls testified during the hearing spread across two mornings, and the age of the girls at the time of the alleged molestation was crucial part of Mitchell attorney Tim Rien’s defense because of the charges his client faced.

Mitchell faced one count of committing lewd acts on child younger than 14 and a second count related to the same girl a couple of years later. He also faces two counts of molesting a girl age 14 or 15 while older than the victim by 10 years or more.

“The whole case is about time,” Rien at one point told the judge.

And it seemed the most important testimony of today’s witness, identified on the stand as Courtney Doe, was about a car ride to Tracy she said she took with Mitchell and his two sons after a daylong picnic in Oakdale.

Doe said she was nodding off in the passenger seat while the two boys slept in the back of Mitchell’s Chevy Suburban. She said she awoke when Mitchell reached over and started to caress her breasts.

Doe testified she said nothing, but fidgeted toward the door and “balled up” to try to distance herself from him, and when it stopped, fell asleep again.

She said she awoke a second time to find his hand on her stomach under her shirt. She testified Mitchell then reached his hand under her skirt and inside her panties, touching her vagina.

But Doe said she was 16 at the time, not 14 or 15, as Mitchell was charged with, so Northup tossed out those two counts.

Doe also said Mitchell would kiss her in a sexual way, with his mouth slightly open, hugging her tight, and holding the kiss for more than 5 seconds, in her estimation.

She described three instances of kissing that happened when she was 14 or 15, once in his living room when other people were around; a second time while sitting on his lap on his living room couch when Mitchell’s wife and kids were upstairs; and a third time when the two of them were in his office, also while she sat on his lap.

The court had already heard other testimony on Tuesday, when a 17-year-old girl identified as Jane R. Doe testified Mitchell kissed her on the lips when she was 13 while the two watched a DVD of the movie, “The Brave One.”

But that was a also charge Northup dismissed because “The Brave One” was released on DVD in 2007, when Jane would have been 14 or 15, not 13.

Prosecutor Robert Martinelli said he’s going to file new felony charges bases on lewd conduct that Doe described today on the witness stand.

Mitchell is due back in court to be arraigned on Dec. 17 in Dept. 35 in the Stockton courthouse.

Contact Tracy Press City Editor Eric Firpo at 830-4223 or efirpo@tracypress.com.