Rockefeller ordered held without bail

October 2, 2008 02:45 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

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(Pool Photo)

Clark Rockefeller attended the hearing via videoconferencing. His attorney, Stephen B. Hrones, argued unsuccessfully for lower bail.

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

A Suffolk Superior Court judge today ordered the man known as Clark Rockefeller held without bail, saying that Rockefeller's life of deceit makes him a flight risk.

Judge D. Lloyd MacDonald ruled this afternoon in the case of the accused kidnapper, a German native whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter.

Gerhartsreiter had asked for a reduction of his bail, which had been set Tuesday at $500 million surety, or $50 million cash, by Trial Magistrate Gary D. Wilson.

MacDonald, who noted Gerhartsreiter's intelligence, said he thought home confinement with an electronic bracelet was not an option, because Gerhartsreiter could defeat the technology.

Prosecutors have argued that in Gerhartsreiter's 30 years in the United States he had changed identities nearly as often as some people change computer passwords. Before his arrest in Baltimore, Gerhartsreiter allegedly claimed to be a ship captain named Charles "Chip" Smith and gave his 7-year-old daughter, Reigh Storrow Mills Boss, the alias Muffy. He has also used the names Christopher Chichester and Christopher Crowe.

His attorney, Stephen B. Hrones, told reporters after Tuesday's hearing that his client would have been unable to make bail if it had been set at $1 million, much less $500 million.

Gerhartsreiter has pleaded not guilty to parental kidnapping and other charges. He is accused of kidnapping his daughter on July 27 during a supervised visit, the first since he and her mother were divorced. He was arrested six days later in Baltimore. His daughter, nicknamed Snooks, was reunited with her mother, Sandra L. Boss, a senior partner at McKinsey & Co., who lives in London. A tentative trial date has been set March 23.

California authorities have also named Gerhartsreiter a "person of interest" in the disappearance and presumed killings of a newlywed couple, John and Linda Sohus, in San Marino in 1985. Bones found buried at their former home have not been identified.