Hubbard Pleads Not Guilty to Attacks : Crime: Officer accused in attacks along beach appears in court with wounded hand heavily bandaged as he enters a not-guilty plea.

Attorneys for San Diego Police Officer Henry Hubbard Jr. proclaimed his innocence Monday of attempted murder and attempted robbery allegations, and claimed Hubbard was denied legal representation for several days.

Hubbard, 29, appeared solemn and stood ramrod straight in his first court appearance since the charges were filed against him. Dressed in a navy blue suit, matching paisley tie and white shirt, the officer wore his jacket over his left shoulder, as his left hand was heavily bandaged and would not fit through the sleeve.

Hubbard, a patrol officer in the department’s northern division, is accused of trying to rob two men and a woman emerging from the ocean at Torrey Pines State Beach Thursday morning.

In a struggle with the men, Hubbard’s earlobe was torn and he accidentally shot himself in the hand, police said. He told his wife that his car had stalled at a freeway intersection and that he was attacked by three men, authorities said.

Investigators, matching the victims’ description of the suspect in the attack with word of Hubbard’s hospital arrival, linked him to the crime several hours later.

On Thursday afternoon, San Diego Police Chief Bob Burgreen declared Hubbard the prime suspect in six other attacks and assaults along the shore from Solona Beach to La Jolla over two months.

Arraignment proceedings were delayed until Thursday to give Hubbard time to decide whether he and his family can afford to pay two private attorneys they hired to represent him. Those attorneys, Kerry L. Steigerwalt and Allen R. Bloom, appeared Monday to defend Hubbard and said many of his friends had stepped forward to offer financial help.

At his court appearance, Hubbard, a rail-thin man with a receding hairline, spoke softly when Municipal Judge Joan P. Weber asked him if he understood that he was waiving his right to be arraigned within 48 hours. “Yes, I do,” was his only comment during the brief hearing.

Hubbard has been charged with one count each of attempted robbery of Aldo Alexander Ochoa, 21; Arthur Lee Gracia, 23, and Charisma Lee Carpenter, 21, whom he encountered on the beach. Prosecutors have also charged Hubbard with attempted murder of Ochoa and Gracia, whom police said he shot in the struggle.

In the shootings and robberies allegedly involving Ochoa and Gracia, Hubbard also faces felony charges of using a gun in commission of a felony and great bodily injury. If convicted of all counts, Hubbard could spend more than 30 years in jail, said Steve Anear, the deputy district attorney prosecuting the case.

Police first said Hubbard also had been arrested in connection with an attempted sexual assault on Carpenter. Prosecutors have so far chosen not to charge him with the offense, but said they will be weighing other criminal charges in the next few weeks.

Gracia, who had been shot in the chest, was released Saturday from Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla. Ochoa is in fair condition. Carpenter, who worked in the apartment complex where Hubbard lived, was once a cheerleader for the San Diego Chargers football team. She was not harmed in the attack.

Attorneys for Hubbard said Monday that the officer is innocent.

“Of course, he categorically denies all of these allegations,” Bloom said. “He is very upset. He has a 2-year-old daughter he misses terribly.”

Bloom said there is even a good explanation as to why a flashlight engraved with Hubbard’s name was found on the beach after the attack, “but we can’t go into it right now.”

James Gattey, representing Hubbard in termination proceedings that the department has begun against him, said his client has had a superb 4 1/2-year career with the agency.

“Based on the support of his family and friends, and the lack of anything that has occurred in his life and background that is anything like this, I have no reason to believe what has been related to me” by police, he said. “This case is a lot more complicated than the district attorney’s office and the Police Department have related.”

Bloom and Steigerwalt filed a motion Monday to allow unlimited Hubbard unlimited access to his attorneys while he is in jail. The motion was granted.

In their motion, the attorneys alleged that Hubbard was denied a chance to see an attorney for nearly three days after his arrest. Hubbard was arrested at 2 p.m. Thursday but was questioned at UC San Diego Medical Center about 6 a.m. that day. Bloom and Steigerwalt said they were not able to interview him until midnight Saturday.

Gattey said he spoke with Hubbard at the hospital Thursday and Friday, and then was unable to see him again based on “orders” given by Anear and Lt. Dan Berglund of the homicide division.

“It’s a violation of the penal code and a misdemeanor to refuse someone an opportunity to visit with an attorney,” he said. After Saturday, Anear “talked about a need for security in the hospital. Neither the district attorney’s office nor the Police Department can tell someone when they can talk to an attorney.”

Anear argued Monday that Hubbard had plenty of access to attorneys, but as many of five “came tromping down the halls of the hospital claiming to be (Hubbard’s) attorney.”

“The hospital is only a semi-secure environment,” he said. “The police were not about to open the hospital doors for every person who wanted to come in. He can see who he wants, as long as he picks an attorney.”

Because witnesses have not yet been gathered to view a police lineup that will include Hubbard, Judge Weber granted a motion by defense attorneys that photographs and videotape taken at Monday’s hearing not be published or broadcast.

Attorneys representing the San Diego Union and Tribune argued that the photographs should be permitted to be used because of the public’s right to know what he looks like and because earlier pictures of Hubbard already have been printed. They also argued that Weber’s prior restraint against printing or showing the photos would infringe on the freedom of the press.

“I’m not denying the media any access,” she said. “You are free to be in this courtroom during all the proceedings. I don’t see how the print media or the television media is prejudiced by my order, which is just simply that you are not permitted to print the defendant’s face.”