Correction: Rickey Rickerson was not a lecturer at SF State. He was a teaching assistant at the university.[X]press regrets the error.

A former SF State teaching assistant charged with 20 counts of petty theft was brought to court Wednesday, where a pre-trial was set for June 10.

[X]press reported last semester that Rickey Rickerson, 43, was being investigated by university police for administering a practice JEPET in an Africana Studies composition class in the spring of 2008, promising his students that if they paid him the $40 JEPET fee, the scores would count and the students would be exempted from taking the actual test.

According to the district attorney's office, Rickerson allegedly pocketed the fees he collected from the students and made unauthorized changes in the school records, stating the students had passed JEPET using the practice test scores. Although the test scores were falsified, the university honored the scores.

On April 14, 20 students testified in front of Judge Quidichay, according to Erica Derryck, spokeswoman for the district attorney's office. [X]press has attempted several times to contact the students, but they declined to comment.

Rickerson is still in custody, according to the San Francisco Sherriff's Department.

Rickerson was a teaching assistant for Professor Ernest Brown who taught the composition class. Brown is no longer employed with SF State, according to University spokeswoman Ellen Griffin.

Brown was not charged with the scam, according to the district attorney's office. He was not present during the alleged fraudulent testing, students previously said.

Staff writer Krystal Peak contributed to this report.