'Rockefeller' to face
false name charge

BOSTON - A judge has refused to drop a false name charge against the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller.

Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, who is a German national, is scheduled to stand trial next month in the kidnapping of his 7-year-old daughter from Boston during a supervised visit last July.

His lawyers argued that Gerhartsreiter had used the Rockefeller name for at least 15 years and was not trying to deceive authorities when he gave that name after his arrest in Baltimore.

But a Suffolk Superior Court judge found that the grand jury that indicted Gerhartsreiter heard enough evidence to show probable cause that he failed to identify himself by his given name "for the dishonest purpose of avoiding possible deportation."

The judge made his ruling earlier this month. It was made public Monday by prosecutors.