Suspects in iPhone prototype plead not guilty

REDWOOD CITY, CALIF.--Two men pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor theft charges in a case involving an iPhone 4 prototype the pair allegedly obtained and sold to gadget blog Gizmodo last year.

At an arraignment here this morning, Brian Hogan, the man who allegedly found the prototype in a bar after it was left there by an Apple engineer, and Robert Sage Wallower, who is accused of that charge as well as possessing stolen property, entered their pleas before Superior Court Judge Jonathan Karesh.

A pretrial conference is scheduled for October 11.

The iPhone prototype in Hogan and Wallower's case shouldn't be confused with the unreleased phone that was lost by an Apple at a San Francisco bar last month. On Wednesday, CNET reported that an Apple employee lost control of a device at Cava22, a Mexican restaurant in the city's Mission District.

Wallower, a former Navy cryptologic technician who was scheduled to graduate from UC Berkeley in 2010, told CNET last year in an in-person interview at his home: "I didn't see it or touch it in any manner. But I know who found it."

CNET is following developments on this story here.