'Rockefeller' to seek dismissal of charges

The man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller plans to file a motion by early next week to dismiss some of the charges related to the alleged kidnapping of his 7-year-old daughter. Jeffrey Denner, a lawyer for Rockefeller, whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, said he was working last night to complete a motion to dismiss some of the charges, based on an assertion that Rockefeller was suffering from a mental illness when prosecutors say he kidnapped his daughter from a Back Bay street during a July 27 visit supervised by a social worker. Rockefeller is a German national who came to the United States and used aliases, passing himself off as an aristocrat in high-society circles in Los Angeles, New York, and Boston.

Two Waltham men pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court for their involvement in a series of bank robberies in Boston and the western and southern suburbs over the past two years. Christopher A. Politis, 37, was convicted for 12 bank robberies and two other attempted bank robberies in Natick, Arlington, Boston, Belmont, Quincy, Newton, and Watertown. The other man, Donald J. Gillis, 40, was convicted on a single count of bank robbery. Prosecutors said the robberies took place between December 2007 and May 2008. Each man faces up to 20 years in federal prison for each charge.

A man was shot twice shortly before 9:30 p.m. and was in critical condition at Boston Medical Center last night, police said. The victim, who was not identified, was shot in the neck and the chest on Devon Street in Dorchester. Officer Joe Zanoli, a police spokesman, said several shots were fired from a silver car, which was seen fleeing the scene toward Columbia Road.

A 37-year-old Worcester man is facing charges that he installed a video camera in a women's bathroom at the Cambridge School of Weston, police said yesterday. Homer Rogers, assistant director of information technology at the school, pleaded not guilty yesterday in Waltham District Court to a charge of secret video surveillance of a partially nude person, said Lieutenant Danny Maguire of the Weston Police Department. Rogers was released on personal recognizance. Maguire said police began investigating when school officials informed them Monday that a video camera had been found in a building. Rogers was arrested Thursday, Maguire said. Jane Moulding, head of school, said Rogers had been fired. The secret video surveillance charge carries a maximum penalty of 2 1/2 years in jail. Rogers's attorney, Robert F. Casey Jr., did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

For the fifth time since the beginning of the fall semester, students at Wellesley College have reported seeing a man exposing his genitals on campus, a college official said last night. Spokeswoman Mary Ann Hill said descriptions of the man from the latest incident on Wednesday evening appear to fit the person described in the other instances. The man is described as being about 5 feet 10 inches, in his late 20s to early 30s, and having curly, dirty blond hair. The first incident was reported on Sept. 8 of last year, according to a campus crime report. In all cases, the man has not approached the students who saw him, or followed them, Hill said.

An Acton firefighter returning from an event to benefit people with muscular dystrophy was killed when the vehicle he was riding in went out of control and struck a tree Thursday afternoon on Worcester Road in Westminster. Leo Hayes Jr., 36, of Maynard, was pronounced dead at the scene the Worcester district attorney's office said yesterday in a statement. James Rautenberg, 24, of Westford, also an Acton firefighter, was driving the 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee. He was treated and released from the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester.