The investigation and public comments about the fire and who started it continue.
Man denies false statements in fire probe
Immigrant has said he didn't set trestle blaze.
By Denny Walsh - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, August 24, 2007
A homeless Salvadoran national pleaded not guilty Thursday in Sacramento federal court to charges that he lied as to his whereabouts at the time a deliberately set fire destroyed a Union Pacific Railroad trestle on March 15.
José Eduardo Moran-Marques, who told The Bee in a jailhouse interview he had nothing to do with the massive Sacramento blaze that cut one of the railroad's main east-west arteries, entered the plea through his attorney, Dina Santos.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Dale A. Drozd ordered him held without bail as a flight risk.
He is next due in court Aug. 31 for a status conference before U.S. District Judge Edward J. Garcia.
Moran-Marques, who says he will be 30 on Saturday, is accused in a federal grand jury indictment of falsely stating he was "in the area of 47th Avenue in Sacramento," when the trestle fire was set along the American River Parkway.
