A Centre County judge denied a motion yesterday by former Penn State football player Chris Baker's attorney to suppress his identification and dismiss two charges he faces in connection with an April altercation.

Baker, 20, is charged with criminal trespass, simple assault, harassment and burglary in connection with a fight police say involved several football players last April at the Meridian Apartment complex, 646 E. College Ave. His attorney had argued that the charges of criminal trespass and burglary should be dismissed and that the identification of Baker by witnesses and victims should be thrown out based on a suggestive lineup.

In a motion filed Dec. 27 and a subsequent hearing Feb. 1, Baker's attorney Karen Muir argued the lineup shown to the victims and witnesses to review was suggestive because only photographs of the Penn State football team were shown. The program consisted of five pages of 1-inch by 1 1/4-inch photos of every member of the Penn State football team, 115 in all.

Muir argued that many of the photographed players in the program were not similar to Baker because, among other things, he was the only one in the array who had "corn rows" in the picture.

But Centre County President Judge David Grine wrote that although Baker might have had slightly different hair than the people pictured, there were several other people who were similar in "skin tone, hair and facial features."

"Due to the similarity of many of the other people in the photographic array, this court finds that the suspect's picture did not stand out more than the other individuals in the photographic array, and was therefore not unduly suggestive," Grine wrote in his opinion.

Grine also rejected Muir's arguments that the burglary and criminal trespass charges should be dismissed based on a lack of evidence, citing testimony at a May 4 preliminary hearing that placed Baker at the Meridian the night of the altercation displaying behavior "consistent with someone who knew they were not allowed to enter the apartment."

Baker, a former defensive tackle for the Nittany Lions, faces trial on the charges from the Meridian incident on March 31.

He also faces criminal charges for an alleged role in an Oct. 7 fight at the HUB-Robeson Center in which a visitor was assaulted. He is charged with aggravated assault, a first-degree felony; harassment and stalking, a summary offense; and misdemeanor charges of simple assault and disorderly conduct.