EX-AGENT'S LAWER SPY CHARGE FAULTY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201350009-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 19, 2012
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: October 17, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201350009-5
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ART. _ .. _ ~~
ON PAGE
NEW YORK TIMES
17 October 1985
Ex-Agent's' Lawyer Calls Spy Charge Faulty
6
In the second day of his closing argu-
ments in Federal District Court here,
Joel Levine, a lawyer for Mr. Miller,
insisted that there were too many holes
in the Government's argument that
Mr. Miller told the bureau about his
contact last year only because he knew
he was being investigated.
Mr. Miller is charged with conspiring
with the Soviet emigre, Svetlana Ogo-
rodnikov, who became his lover, to
pass secret F.B.I. documents to the
Soviet Union. The woman and her hus-
band, Nikolay, pleaded guilty to espio-
nage charges earlier and are serving
prison terms.
The Government asserts that Mrs.
Ogorodnikov was controlled by the
K.G.B., the Soviet intelligence agency,
and the defense contends that Mr.
Miller was trying to infiltrate the agen-
cy. -
M. Miller, 48 years old, a portly, be-
spectacled 20-year veteran of the bu-
reati who was dismissed a few hours
before his arrest last Oct. 2. He faces a
possible life sentence if convicted.
Lawyer Assails Testimony
Mr. Levine sought to cast doubt on
the assertion of an F.B.I. witness that
Mr. Miller realized he was being ob-
served one day in September 1964. The
agent, Paul DeFlores, testified that
Mr. Miller saw Mr. DeFlores watching
him with Mrs. Ogorodnikov in a public
park.
Mr. DeFlores, who said he was in the
park by coincidence, testified that he
and Mr. Miller looked at each other and
that he saw Mr. Miller "raise his eye-
brows" from 48 feet away.
"If Mr. Miller was wearing his
By JUDITH CUMIlr INGS
Spatial to Ths New Yak Timm
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 16 - The de-
fense for Richard W. Miller battled to-
day to convince a jury that the former
agent of the Federal Bureau of Investi-
gation could not have been a spy be-
cause he had voluntarily disclosed his
clandestine dealings with a Soviet
emigre.
glasses, how could Mr. DeFlores see
his eyebrows," Mr. Levine asked the
Jury. "If Mr. Miller wasn't wearing his
glasses, how could he see Mr. De-
Flores?-
A day later Mr. Miller went to a su-
perior at the bureau, Bryce Christen-
sen, and said he had been acting on a
plan of his own to infiltrate the K.G.B.
by using the Ogorodnikova and that he
now needed the bureau's help. Mr.
Miller has contended that he was trying
to become a hero.
The facts in the case could be inter-
preted to support either the Govern-
ment's interpretation or Mr. Miller's,
Mr. Levine told the jurors. But the law-
yer said if they held a reasonable doubt
about the Government's contention
that the only reason Mr. Miller went to
the bureau with his story was because
he knew that he had been uncovered as
a spy, then they could not convict him.
The defense lawyer described his
client as an "average" man "with
average weaknesses" who never be-
longed in the F.B.I. "He was a shoe
that never fit," Mr. Levine said.
Despite Mr. Miller's failings, Mr. Le-
vine said, he had the spirit to make an
underdog's long-shot bid at glory, in the
style of American movie heroes. Mr.
Miller was "not as cute as Eddie Mur-
phy" or "as macho as Clint East-
wood," but "he was trying to hit a
home run and he did," Mr. Levine said.
Throughout his arguments, Mr. Le-
vine sought to persuade the jury that
Mr. Miller had virtually achieved his
goal of ensnaring Soviet spies but was
cheated of his achievement by a bureau
hierarchy that disapproved of his
methods and of him.
The Government chanted that Mr.
Miller turned over to the Soviet Union,
through Mrs. Ogorodnikov, what the
prosecutor, Russell Hayman, called
"the playbook of American intelligence
operations worldwide." Mr. Hayman
described this as the most critical of
several classified documents Mr.
Miller gave Mrs. Ogorodnikov for
"$50,000 in gold."
Mr. Miller was questioned for five
days by bureau investigators, in gruel-
ing sessions, Mr. Levine said, adding
that before they ended Mr. Miller, in a
confused state, confessed. But the law-
yer said he also told his questioners,
i "I'll sign anything." The confession
was false and wrongfully obtained, Mr.
Levine said.
He told the jurors that the Govern-
ment had provided no evidence that
Mr. Miller had passed any classified
documents to Mrs. Ogorodnikov.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201350009-5