Suspects in iPhone 4 prototype theft plead not guilty

The two men who were named suspects in the theft and sale of the iPhone 4 prototype sold to Gizmodo last year have pled not guilty in the case, reports Cnet.

The two men, Brian Hogan, pictured, and Robert Sage Wallower, were accused of misdemeanor in the case. Wallower is also accused of possessing stolen property. Both men entered their not guilty pleas before Superior Court Judge Jonathan Karesh and a pretrial conference is scheduled for October 11th.

iPhone prototypes have been in the headlines again recently as another Cnet story yesterday reported that a prototype of this year’s device was lost at a bar in San Francisco, under eerily familiar conditions. Both Apple and the police are involved in the search for that device although a formal police report has yet to be filed.

Last year an engineer named Gray Powell lost the device in a bar in Redwood City, which was taken by Hogan. The phone was then sold to gadget blog Gizmodo for $5000. Gizmodo went on to publish images, video and details about the phone, sparking enormous traffic but also the ire of Apple, who have gone on to bar Gizmodo from events and initiate an investigation into whether the site was guilty of accepting stolen property.

The site, including editor Jason Chen, was cleared in the case last month.