Emails apparently from mayoral candidate Frank M. Conaway's campaign called and then cancelled a press conference Thursday -- but Conaway says they didn't come from him.

The first email, sent around 9:30 this morning, said Conaway would make an "important announcement" at 1 p.m. today in front of the War Memorial Plaza across from City Hall.

Three hours later, an email sent from the same account cancelled the press conference.

Conaway, who has served as Baltimore's Clerk of Court for the past dozen years, denies sending the emails, which arrived on the first day of early voting in the city.

"I didn't call for any press conference," he said. He declined to speculate on who had sent the mysterious missives, and what the motive might have been.

"You're asking me to explain something that I didn't have anything to do with," Conaway said.

Indeed the emails were sent from a Gmail account, while Conaway had used a Hotmail account for previous campaign correspondences.

Conaway said he was recovering from injuries he suffered in a car accident Tuesday evening while en route to a candidates' forum jointly sponsored by the Baltimore Sun, WYPR and The League of Women Voters.

Conaway has injected a note of levity into the mayor's race, reciting snatches of nursery rhymes at debates and releasing a rap song slamming his opponents.

He ran for mayor in 2007 as well, but dropped out of the race about two weeks before the primary.

A recent Baltimore Sun poll showed Conaway capturing about 5 percent of the vote.