Goetz Enters Not Guilty Pleas to New Charges in Shootings of 4

Bernhard H. Goetz pleaded not guilty to attempted murder Thursday and was allowed to remain free on $5,000 bail in the shootings of four youths on a New York subway.

Goetz, 37, a self-employed electronics technician, surrendered at a police station and was taken in handcuffs to court. He was arraigned amid extremely tight security before Acting Justice Stephen Crane in Criminal Court in Manhattan.

Attorney Barry Slotnick entered pleas of not guilty to all 10 charges lodged against Goetz in a second indictment Wednesday.

Bail Increase Asked

Assistant Dist. Atty. Gregory Waples had asked that bail be raised to $20,000 from the $5,000 that was set for Goetz in January because the new charges were more serious than those in an indictment issued by a different grand jury in January.

But Crane rejected the request after Slotnick said that his client “has nowhere to go, judge. You’re looking at, unfortunately, the best-known face in the country. He couldn’t flee.”

The latest indictment was issued after Dist. Atty. Robert Morgenthau, saying that he had a new witness, resubmitted the case to a grand jury.

Slotnick, who has argued that there is no new evidence in the case, was granted 45 days to prepare a motion to throw out the indictment. The grand jury charged Goetz with four counts of attempted murder, four counts of assault, one count of reckless endangerment and one count of criminal possession of a firearm.

Shot Youths Dec. 22

Goetz shot the four youths in a subway car on Dec. 22 to forestall what he said was an attempted robbery. However, two of the youths said that one of them had merely asked Goetz for $5.

Attempted murder is a felony with a maximum penalty of up to 25 years in prison for each count. The assault and weapons possession charges carry up to 15 years for each count, and the reckless endangerment charge carries up to seven years in prison.