WITNESS TAMPERING CHARGED IN SPY CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000605480083-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 30, 2011
• Sequence Number: 83
• Publication Date: July 17, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/30: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605480083-9
ARTICLE AP?E,AM
ON Pl_i r_ 14 ~_ ;
WASHINGTON POST
17 July 1984
"Witness Tampering Charged
oy Lena n. aun ?
Waahington PeatStatt Writer spyr`C .-:
Defense attorneys for Richard Craig Smith, '111 IItSe
.charged with selling national defense secrets to
.mitting national defense information, Smith
.could be sentenced to life imprisonment.
Smith contends he was working for two CIA
contacts who gave him a Honolulu telephone
number as his contact upon his return to the
the Soviets, yesterday accused the government
;of "subtle witness tampering" in connection with
-potential defense witnesses.
> In one instance a government psychologist
retained by the defense was told by his, super-
visors he could not testify at the trial, Smith's
.attorneys told a federal judge in Alexandria.
t They also accused federal prosecutors of
threatening witnesses in Hawaii with prosecu-
;tion if they talked to Smith's lawyers.
"We're upset about the continued witness tam-
pering in this case," attorney A. Brent Carruth
.told U. S. District Judge Richard L. Williams.
Assistant U. S. Attorneys Joseph Aronica and
.Kenneth Melson denied that there has been co-
ercion, intimidation or tampering of any sort.
-At yesterday's pretrial hearing Williams also
-heard motions to allow introduction of newspa-
per articles and information about polygraph
tests given Smith by the FBI. The judge is not
;expected to rule on any of the motions, including
the allegations of witness tampering, until later
in the week. .
Smith, 40, a former Army counterintelligence
specialist, is accused of providing the identities
-of six U.S. double agents to a Soviet KGB officer
-in Tokyo in exchange for $11,000. If convicted
.of conspiring with the KGB officer or of trans-
United States. That number was one used at the
now-defunct Honolulu investment firm of Bishop,
Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham and Wong, a firm
alleged in lawsuits to have had extensive con-
tacts with the CIA.
The trial, originally scheduled to begin last
week, has been postponed indefinitely because
the defense and prosecution have been unable to
agree on what classified information, if any, will
be allowed into evidence.
At 'yesterday's hearing, Carruth asked the
judge to allow the psychologist, Dr. Robert Mad-
son of St. Elizabeths Hospital, to appear for the
defense. He said he did not believe the three
prosecutors interfered directly in the case.
"However, it is clear that the Government itself
interfered," according to court papers filed yes-
terday. The defense was notified last week that
Madson would not be able to testify, Carruth
said.
"Notification to the defense during the exact
period that they are to be in trial that they can-
not use a witness, 'after that very witness was
told earlier that it was okay, is tantamount to
witness tampering," the court papers stated.
Prosecutors said they believed the reason
Madson was told not to testify for the defense is
that his testimony would pose a conflict of inter-
est since he is a government employe.
Carruth said defense attorneys have been de-
nied access to another potential witness in
Hawaii, who is a CIA employe.
Aronica responded that "what was brought to
the attention of the attorneys of [the CIA em-
ploye and other potential witnesses] were the
existence of court [gag] orders" issued by a fed-
eral judge in the Bishop, Baldwin investigation.
Prosecutors, in turn, accused Carruth of making
a "grandstand play before the press."
Aronica said Smith's story that he was work-
ing for the CIA was a "recent fabrication" and
that Smith "recently made a magical connection
to (Ronald] Rewald," former head of Bishop,
Baldwin. To bolster their case, prosecutors want
the right to introduce numerous newspaper ar-
ticles, most of them from Hawaii, to show there
was extensive publicity about Bishop, Baldwin
and its alleged CIA connections last year.
Smith, who lived in Bellevue, Wash., prior to
his arrest, has said he did not know about Bishop,
Baldwin until after his release from jail in May,
when the defense. team traced his telephone
number to the firm.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/30: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605480083-9