Rogers Pleads Not Guilty in Chase : Court: Suspected serial killer is charged with three felonies in connection with flight from arresting officers.

A drifter who police describe as a suspected serial killer pleaded not guilty today to felony charges arising from the high-speed chase before he was captured.

Glen Edward Rogers, wanted in connection with the deaths of four women and one man in five different states, had little to say when he appeared before Madison County Circuit Judge William Jennings.

Rogers is facing a second-degree murder charge in Louisiana. Florida and California also have begun paperwork for his extradition in murder cases, Madison County Commonwealth’s Atty. Thomas Smith said Tuesday.

Rogers, 33, is from Hamilton, Ohio, but has drifted around the country, working at a variety of jobs. The Cincinnati Post reported Tuesday that he had worked for a time on a circuit of carnivals and county fairs. Police have described him as a handsome charmer, who found it easy to pick up women.

Four women he met in bars in California, Mississippi, Florida and Louisiana were later found stabbed to death or strangled, authorities have said.

Ohio authorities also have tried to question Rogers in the death of Mark Peters, with whom Rogers once lived. Peters’ decomposed body was found in January, 1994, in a shack owned by Rogers’ family near Beattyville, Ky.

Rogers’ court-appointed attorney, Ernie Lewis, today told Jennings that sheriff’s deputies from Clermont County, Ohio, came to the Madison County Detention Center Monday night and began questioning Rogers against his wishes.

Lewis said he wanted to assert in court that Rogers does not wish to talk to police.

Rogers, with a beard and blond hair below the shoulders, made the short trip from the jail to the courthouse across the street in a police cruiser because of his leg shackles.

He was surrounded by reporters and photographers as he emerged from the car and did not answer shouted questions about whether he would fight extradition.

Entering the courtroom, Rogers blew a kiss to a young woman seated in the front row. He pleaded innocent to two charges of first-degree wanton endangerment and one charge of criminal mischief involving his high-speed flight from Kentucky State Police officers last week.

One of the endangerment charges involved his allegedly running a state police roadblock, and the mischief charge involved at least $1,000 in damage to a cruiser.

As he left the courtroom, Rogers flashed a clenched fist toward the woman, who declined to identify herself to reporters.