UCI Instructor Says He Didn’t Kidnap Boy, 2
A UC Irvine mathematics lecturer accused of kidnaping the 2-year-old son of an Orange County rabbi pleaded not guilty to the charge late Monday in Los Angeles federal court.
U.S. District Judge Ferdinand F. Fernandez accepted the plea from Alexander Gelman, 40, of Santa Ana and set a July 22 trial date.
A federal grand jury indicted Gelman May 13 for allegedly abducting Zalman Berkowitz from his Westminster home. The boy was found unharmed in Tijuana two days later when Gelman was arrested for being involved in a minor traffic accident. Gelman was described by police as a family friend and a member of Rabbi Aron D. Berkowitz’s congregation, the Chabad of West Orange County.
Gelman, who could be sentenced to life imprisonment if convicted, is being held at Terminal Island federal prison. Marilyn Butler, Gelman’s court-appointed attorney, said Monday that Gelman plans to retain a private attorney to represent him at the trial.
Gelman reportedly told police that on April 21 he had become dizzy, went to a doctor who told him he had high blood pressure, then somehow ended up at the Berkowitz home.
A Soviet emigre, Gelman is in the second year of a two-year appointment as a visiting mathematics lecturer at UC Irvine.
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