ASPEN — A three-day jury trial has been set for a former Aspen yoga instructor accused of improperly touching some of his clients.

Steven Roger, 48, appeared in Pitkin County Court on Tuesday, during which time a judge set the matter over for trial beginning June 9.

Roger faces two misdemeanor charges of unlawful sexual conduct with two of his students during the spring of 2008.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, after Judge Erin Fernandez-Ely rejected a plea agreement last month. The agreement called for Roger to plead no contest to one of the charges (The Aspen Times erroneously reported last month that he would plead no contest to both counts), get a two-year deferred judgment, and spend two years on supervised probation and the state's sex offender registry.

On Tuesday, Fernandez-Ely encouraged both the prosecution and defense to continue efforts to reach some sort of plea agreement instead of trying the case.

rcarroll@aspentime.com