Seated with his legs crossed, Alberto Braunstein, the father of the “fake fireman” sexual assault suspect, leafed through various newspapers as he waited two and a half hours for his son to arrive at state Supreme Court in Manhattan yesterday. He chatted a bit with Peter Braunstein’s defense attorney, Robert Gottlieb, as well as with a television reporter.

It was just after noon when Peter Braunstein arrived under police escort for his arraignment on the 11th-floor, where he pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping, arson, burglary, robbery, sexual abuse, and assault.

The defendant wore a gray Department of Correction jumpsuit, handcuffs, and hospital identification from his stay at Bellevue’s prison ward. His once long, curly hair was closely cropped and scars were visible on his neck from an alleged attempt to kill himself with a knife before police arrested him on December 16 on the University of Memphis campus in Tennessee.

Mr. Braunstein did not appear to acknowledge his father’s presence in the courtroom.

The father and son have long had an estranged relationship. “I’ve always said he was deranged, and I still think he’s deranged,” Alberto Braunstein, 72, said after the arraignment. Regardless, the father insisted on attending the arraignment. “I’m here just to support my son. That’s why I am here,” he said. The defendant’s mother, Angele Braunstein, 75, was absent.

Before Mr. Braunstein, 41, was removed from the courtroom, Mr. Gottlieb questioned the merits of Judge Ellen Coin’s decision at the December 20 criminal court arraignment to order a psychiatric examination, as it did not appear to be for the purpose of determining Mr. Braunstein’s competency to stand trial. “We don’t know what the hell this was about,” Mr. Gottlieb said after the arraignment. He said he is contesting the decision because of a concern “that the law be adhered to.”

At Mr. Gottlieb’s request, Judge Brenda Soloff agreed yesterday that notes written during the psychiatric examination should not be made available to the prosecution. “I do not want any dissemination of a report,” Mr. Gottlieb said in court, later noting that a report had not yet materialized.

Judge Coin did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

The director of communications for the Office of Court Administration, David Bookstaver, said Judge Coin was entitled to ask for a psychiatric examination. “It is not uncommon” for judges to request psychiatric examinations, he said. In Mr. Braunstein’s case, he said, the judge asked for the examination at the request of the public defender.

Mr. Braunstein, a freelance writer, is suspected of making his way into a 34-year-old woman’s Chelsea building on Halloween by dressing as a firefighter and then setting fires. When she opened her apartment door, he allegedly forced his way in at gunpoint and drugged, sexually abused, and held her hostage for 13 hours.

Mr. Braunstein is expected to appear in court next on February 23.