NATION : U.S. District Judge Pleads Innocent

U.S. District Judge Robert P. Aguilar pleaded innocent today to charges of using his office to do favors for convicted felons, crimes punishable by up to 55 years in prison.

Aguilar, the fourth federal judge in the nation to be indicted in the last decade and the first ever for racketeering, was arraigned before a visiting federal judge, Howard Bratton of New Mexico, and released without bail. His trial has also been assigned to an outside judge, Louis Bechtle of Philadelphia.

Aguilar, 50, left through a rear exit and did not speak with reporters. Before the hearing, he talked and laughed with defense lawyers in the courtroom and did not look at co-defendants Rudy Tham, an imprisoned former labor leader, and Abe Chapman, a self-styled former mobster related to Aguilar by marriage.