'Rockefeller' pleads not guilty to taking daughter

BOSTON (AP) - The German man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller has won the right to bail at a sum befitting a true Rockefeller.

A magistrate set bail at 50 million dollars today for the man who authorities have identified as Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, after he pleaded not guilty in Suffolk Superior Court to charges related to the kidnapping of his 7-year-old daughter off a Boston street in July.

Gerhartsreiter's attorney, Stephen Hrones, says he'll appeal the bail during a hearing set for Thursday. Prosecutors say Gerhartsreiter has been living under fake identities since coming to the U.S. in 1978. He also has been identified as a "person of interest" in the 1985 disappearance of a California couple.

Hrones concedes his client has lied about his roots. But he says there is no basis for the kidnapping charges because he contends his marriage to the girl's mother was never valid, so no custody agreement could be, either.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)