A Kapolei couple entered not guilty pleas in federal court today to charges that they conspired to commit an offense against the U.S., made false statements on passport applications and stole the identities of two dead infants in Texas.

Former U.S. defense contractor Walter Glenn Primrose, aka “Bobby Edward Fort,” and his wife Gwynn Darle Morrison, aka “Julie Lyn Montague,” were both ordered held without bail until their trial on Sept. 26 before U.S. District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi.

Both appeared via telephone from the Federal Detention Center, Honolulu. The pair face up to 17 years in prison if convicted on each count. They were arrested July 22 at their home in Kapolei.

When Morrison’s case was called this morning she replied with “That’s what they’re calling me,” according to the Associated Press. Primrose has acknowledged that is his name, not Fort, the identity he allegedly used to enlist in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1994.

“We have a situation here where this defendant and her co-defendant, of course, have used false identities to deceive Social Security, the Department of Defense, Hawaii Department of Transportation, the State Department national passport center for 30 years,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Muehleck, speaking in court today. “There’s no verification of who she says she is.”

U.S. Magistrate Judge Rom Trader said he was holding her without bail because he couldn’t trust her to comply with terms and conditions of release if he wasn’t sure of her identity.

“At the core of this case, is some serious, albeit unusual, circumstances where the defendant claims to be an individual other than the person named in the indictment,” said Trader. “I can’t even really say that I have confidence in who miss Morrison or Miss Montague really, truly is.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Wayne A. Myers said previously that Primrose worked for more than 20 years as an avionics electrical technician with the Coast Guard where he was able to obtain a secret-level security clearance. After retiring from the Department of Defense in 2016, he used his secret clearance for a job with a private defense contractor working in Hawaii.

Myers said previously that a search of the couple’s Kapolei home turned up Polaroids from the 1980s of Primrose and Morrison wearing what appear to be authentic Russian KGB uniforms. Federal agents also found an invisible ink kit, documents with coded language and maps of military bases, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Myers has also said the couple were recorded alone in a room together having conversations about “things consistent with espionage,” although neither is charged with it.

“She wants everybody to know she is not a Russian spy,” Morrison’s attorney, Megan Kau, told the Star-Advertiser.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.