By CAROL ROSENBERG
Herald Staff Writer

Some players in South Florida's Cuban spy saga pleaded innocent in federal court Thursday to the latest batch of charges issued in the case.

But not the accused spymaster -- he wasn't there.

Case prosecutor Caroline Heck Miller called him Gerardo Hernandez, his latest name in the latest of three successive indictments the U.S. Attorney's office has filed in the case since September.

Defense attorney Paul McKenna called him Manuel Viramontez, the name he used as a South Florida graphics artist, and his name on the first indictment, before federal authorities recast him as a ``John Doe No. 1.''

U.S. Marshals in the court looked at their list in confusion. They had no one named Hernandez, they said.

U.S. Magistrate Barry L. Garber ordered the two sides to sort out the location of the man who allegedly ran the 14-member spy ring and is now accused of conspiring to commit murder charges in the February 1996 shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue planes by Cuban MiG fighterjets.

South Floridians Pablo Morales, Armando Alejandre, Mario de la Pena and Carlos Costa were killed in the attack.

Garber rescheduled the arraignment for this morning, by which time federal authorities are expected to bring the accused spymaster to court.

Three other accused spies -- Rene Gonzalez; John Doe 2, who went by Luis Medina III; and John Doe III, who went by Ruben Campa -- entered not guilty pleas to additional charges stemming from the latest indictment. A fifth accused member of the spy ring, Antonio Guerrero, entered a not guilty plea Monday.

All 10 members have been jailed since their arrest in an FBI sweep in September.

U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard has set the trial date for September, although defense lawyers say they are swimming in such a huge mountain of classified disclosure documents that they doubt the trial can begin on time.

Also at issue is whether the lawyers will ask the judge to move the trial to a city outside South Florida, because the men are accused of working clandestinely for the government of Fidel Castro.

Four other accused spy ring members, including former Brothers to the Rescue member Juan Pablo Roque, are officially listed as fugitives. Like Roque, who returned to Havana on the eve of the shootdown, the fugitives are believed to be living in Cuba.