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'Rockefeller' still insists that's his name

E-mail|Link|Comments () May 11, 2009 11:39 AM

By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

The man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller has a simple request for his upcoming trial on parental kidnapping charges: Call him by the name Clark Rockefeller.

The man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller. (Globe file photograph)

Defense attorney Jeffrey Denner indicated today in Suffolk Superior Court that he will try to block prosecutors from referring to his client as Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter. In the last pre-trial hearing before jury selection starts on May 26, Denner told the judge that he wanted to find a way to refer to his client as Rockefeller during the proceeding.

"We take the position that his name is Clark Rockefeller," Denner said.

The grand jury indictment, which includes a charge of giving police a fake name, referred to the defendant as Gerhartsreiter. Authorities allege that Rockefeller is one of a string of aliases used by Gerhartsreiter since moving to the United States from his native Germany as an exchange student in the 1970s. California authorities have labeled him a "person of interest" in the disappearance of a San Marino couple in the 1980s. He has not been charged with a crime in that case.

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Frank Gaziano ordered today that attorneys on both sides file final motions and paperwork in the case by May 18. The trial is scheduled to start May 26.

The judge today also rejected a defense motion to move the trial outside of Boston. Denner had argued that overwhelming publicity would make it impossible to find an impartial jury. In his ruling on the change of venue, however, Gaziano left open the possibility that the trial could be moved if they have difficulty seating jurors.

Rockefeller has pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping his 7-year-old daughter during a supervised visit in Boston last July after losing custody to his former wife.