10/01/2002

By ANDREW KRAMER, Associated Press Writer

Christian Longo pleaded innocent Tuesday in Lincoln County Circuit Court to charges he murdered his family and dumped their bodies off the Oregon coast before fleeing to Mexico.

Longo's lawyer, Ken Hadley, said Longo declined to enter a plea on the charges, prompting Judge Robert Huckleberry to enter the innocent plea.

Christian Longo listens at a hearing, with his attorneys, in front of Judge Robert J Huckleberry at the Lincoln County Circuit Court i n Newport. (AP Photo)

Longo wore a light gray suit and sat at the defense table with his legs crossed, leafing through legal papers. He occasionally conferred with his defense attorneys in whispers.

In several of the 23 motions argued Tuesday, Hadley argued Longo had been deprived of the chance to visit a Mexican lawyer before volunteering to return to the United States to face trial.

Christian Longo as he appeared in court by video earlier this year. (KGW Photo)

As a defense attorney in a capital case, Hadley's main task will be to keep his client alive.

Hadley is likely to pursue a legal strategy of meticulously laying the groundwork for future appeals, legal experts have said. At the pretrial hearing, he questioned the details of Longo's arrest, extradition from Mexico and indictment.

The grisly case unfolded in quick succession last winter, after 5-year-old Zachery Michael Longo was found floating in an ocean inlet near Waldport just before Christmas. His sister, 3-year-old Sadie Ann, was found three days later, cocooned inside a sleeping bag, a floral print pillow case containing a rock tied to her ankle.

Zachery Michael, Madison and Sadie Ann Longo in this family photo. (KGW Photo)

Court documents later showed that he stopped briefly in San Francisco before catching a flight to Mexico.

By then, Longo had landed on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list, and a Canadian tourist soon tipped off the FBI as to his whereabouts.

He voluntarily returned to the United States, a move that has become an issue in the case.

MaryJane Longo in this file photo. (KGW Photo)

Summoned to testify Tuesday was the FBI agent who flew to Cancun and accompanied Mexican police during Longo's arrest.

Daniel Clegg testified that he never told Longo he could call a U.S. consular official, and said it was the obligation of the Mexican authorities to inform him of that right under the Vienna Convention.

Clegg said he talked with Longo in a small office of the Mexican state police in Cancun. He said he told Longo he could stay in Mexico and fight extradition, but that would mean an extended stay in Mexican jail.

"Chris said something to the effect, 'I don't want to spend time in a Mexican jail,"' Clegg testified.

Clegg said he talked about conditions in Mexican jails with Longo for about two minutes. He said he did not recount any specific "horror stories," about Mexican jails.

After arriving in the United States, Longo signed a paper saying he had agreed to leave voluntarily, said Lincoln County Sheriff Ralph Turre, who flew to Texas to escort Longo back to Oregon.

Huckleberry on Tuesday dismissed a defense motion to require the FBI to reveal Clegg's cell phone records on the night he met Longo in Mexico. Hadley said he needed the documents to determine whether there was "a conspiracy" involving Oregon officials to deprive Longo of his rights to U.S. consular assistance after the arrest.

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)