Trial scheduled for late November

The two remaining suspects in involved in the theft of an iPhone 4 prototype last year have plead not guilty, says CNET. Both Brian Hogan and Robert Sage Wallower are charged with misdemeanor theft; Wallower faces an additional accusation of possessing stolen property. Hogan is believed to have found the prototype in a Redwood City bar, left there accidentally by Apple engineer Robert Gray Powell.

The attorney representing Hogan, K&L Gates' Jeff Bornstein, says he is happy that the district attorney filed the charges as misdemeanors instead of felonies. Prosecutors are showing they're "sensitive to the facts and circumstances" of the case, he claims. Hogan's defense plan is unknown. Wallower though has stated that he never saw or touched the prototype, even if he did know who found it.

At one point in the investigation attention was directed at Gizmodo, which paid for access to the prototype before returning it to Apple. Even though police conducted a raid of editor Jason Chen's house, seizing computers and drives, the San Mateo County DA's office recently declared that it was abandoning any further examination of Gizmodo workers.

Apple allegedly lost another iPhone prototype this July. If reports are accurate the device may have again been stolen, but if so, no one has confessed to the crime, and no images have surfaced online.

By Electronista Staff