Cleveland man pleads not guilty to 977 charges in abduction of women CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Former Cleveland school bus driver Ariel Castro on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to 977 criminal charges stemming from the abduction and long imprisonment of three women and a child born to one of them over a period of about a decade. A grand jury on Friday added 648 charges to a previous indictment against Castro, who is accused of abducting the first of the women in August 2002 and holding them captive until they escaped his home on May 6 with a 6-year-old girl he fathered during her mother's captivity. An attorney for Castro, 53, entered the "not guilty" plea during a brief arraignment before Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Pamela Barker, who kept in place an $8 million bond and order that Castro not be allowed to see his 6-year-old daughter. Officials have said that they were kept bound for periods of time in chains or rope and that they endured starvation, beatings and repeated sexual assaults. Reporting by Kim Palmer in Cleveland; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick; Writing by David Bailey; Editing by Greg McCune