Judge Critical of Religious Lecture to Miller

A federal judge Tuesday criticized the head of the Los Angeles office of the FBI for delivering a religious lecture to accused spy Richard W. Miller during a five-day interrogation period that preceded the former agent’s arrest on espionage charges.

U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon said that an appeal by Richard T. Bretzing, a bishop in the Mormon Church, for Miller to “repent” and confess his wrongdoing had jeopardized the government’s case against Miller, an excommunicated Mormon.

“It was a dangerous thing to do, at the very least,” Kenyon said. “It should not have been done.”

Miller made a series of damaging admissions about his past conduct and his involvement with two accused Soviet agents following a meeting last Sept. 29 with Bretzing. His lawyers had asked Kenyon to exclude the statements on grounds that they were made because of religious pressure and were not given voluntarily.

Kenyon said Tuesday that Bretzing’s appeal to Miller to consider the “spiritual” aspects of his situation had been dangerous in terms of the question of the “voluntariness” of Miller’s subsequent statements.

Kenyon ruled, however, that Miller’s statements--including an admission that he passed secret FBI documents to the accused Soviet agents--may be used as evidence in Miller’s espionage trial, explaining that he believed Miller would have made them regardless of Bretzing’s comments. Miller, said Kenyon, appeared more concerned with his failure to pass FBI polygraph tests during his initial questioning than he was with the religious ramifications of his past conduct. Following his admissions, Miller was arrested Oct. 2 as the first FBI agent in history to be charged with espionage.

“It seems to the court that (the polygraph) was his main concern,” Kenyon said. “This was not the kind of confession that was apparently born of a religious concern, but born of a concern over this bad situation of the polygraphs and of having people believe him.

“The court believes that, regardless of what Mr. Bretzing said, the defendant would have made the exact same statements.” Kenyon’s ruling on the question of Miller’s pre-arrest statements was one of several decisions announced by the judge on the ninth day of a prolonged pretrial hearing in the case of Miller, 48, and two alleged Soviet agents, Svetlana Ogorodnikova, 34, and her husband, Nikolai Ogorodnikov, 51.

The government, concerned that Miller’s pre-arrest statements could not be used as evidence if all three defendants were tried together, had asked that Miller be tried first, with a second espionage trial for the Ogorodnikovs.

Kenyon granted the request for separate trials, but reversed the order suggested by U.S. Atty. Robert C. Bonner and ruled that the Ogorodnikovs will be tried first.

The ruling by Kenyon will permit Miller’s attorneys, Stanley Greenberg and Joel Levine, to seek the testimony of the Ogorodnikovs during Miller’s trial. The Ogorodnikovs are expected to claim in their trial that they never received secret documents from Miller, and Miller’s lawyers hope to use that defense to bolster their own contentions that the former FBI agent was not really a spy.

Miller’s defense has been that he was involved with the Ogorodnikovs in an attempt to salvage an otherwise undistinguished 20-year FBI career by catching them as spies. His lawyers have argued that his earlier admission of giving secrets to the Soviets was made only because he was exhausted by FBI questioners and “emotionally shattered” by Bretzing’s spiritual appeal.

In another decision favorable to Miller, Kenyon ruled that Miller cannot be tried simultaneously on espionage charges and eight other criminal counts filed against him relating to the sale of FBI information and the misappropriation of FBI funds.

Miller’s attorneys had argued that the criminal charges against Miller would prejudice a jury. Kenyon, agreeing with them, ordered that there be one trial for the espionage counts and a second trial on the remaining criminal charges.

The Ogorodnikovs’ trial is now scheduled to begin Feb. 12, but their attorneys have requested a 70-day continuance. Kenyon indicated he may rule on that and other remaining pretrial issues on Thursday.

Tuesday’s hearing was marked by a brief verbal fight between the Ogorodnikovs, who previously have rarely spoken to one another in court appearances. A sobbing Ogorodnikova and her husband screamed at one another in Russian during an afternoon recess as their attorneys tried to quiet them.

Their attorneys, Brad D. Brian, Gregory Stone and Randy Sue Pollack, said they did not know what the fight was about. The Ogorodnikovs were seeking a legal separation prior to their arrests, although they were living together in a Hollywood apartment with their 13-year-old son.