‘Syringe Bandit’ Case Takes a Twist : Courts: Northridge man pleads innocent to crimes. Hours later, another man uses similar method to rob dry cleaner.

A Northridge man pleaded not guilty Friday to charges he was the “Syringe Bandit” who committed a string of San Fernando Valley robberies in which victims were threatened with a hypodermic purportedly containing AIDS-tainted blood. Hours later, another robber used a similar technique at a Woodland Hills dry cleaner.

The robber, described as a man of Asian appearance between 25 and 30 years old, took several hundred dollars from the Rose Dry Cleaners on Ventura Boulevard about 5:30 p.m., Los Angeles police said

The robber brandished a hypodermic needle at a clerk but did not say what the syringe contained or threaten to use it, said Sgt. Ted Hanson, who declined to reveal the exact amount of money stolen.

A similar crime occurred March 18 in Hawthorne, where a robber took $20 from the Friendly Market after saying he had AIDS and showing a vial of red fluid to a clerk, Hawthorne police said.

The Woodland Hills holdup Friday was the first such robbery in the Valley since Wesley G. Pledger, 35, of Northridge, was arrested last Saturday, Hanson said.

Pledger pleaded not guilty in San Fernando Municipal Court on Friday to 10 counts of robbery and assault with a deadly weapon stemming from eight holdups in Northridge in which a bandit threatened victims with a syringe he said was filled with his own AIDS-contaminated blood. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for April 27.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Sera Boyadjian said outside the courtroom that she does not plan to have Pledger tested for the AIDS virus. The presence of the virus is irrelevant because no one was stuck with the needle, she said.

The hypodermic needle, which has not been recovered, is considered a deadly weapon by itself, Boyadjian said.

However, Deputy Public Defender Thom Tibor questioned whether a hypodermic syringe, with or without a needle, can be considered a deadly weapon. Tibor said he is still investigating the case, but suggested the wrong man may have been arrested.

Pledger, who is being held in Los Angeles County Central Men’s Jail in lieu of $120,000 bail, was arrested last Saturday after witnesses identified him from photos taken by a store surveillance camera.

Police said that Pledger was on parole for robbery and has a history of drug use. Pledger also lived near where most of the robberies occurred.