Tourist Infiltrated White House Past Inaugural Guards

Despite extraordinarily tight security, a tourist from Denver carrying an overnight bag walked into the White House with the Marine Corps orchestra on President Reagan’s Inauguration Day and wandered freely until he reached the First Family dining room.

There, a member of the White House usher’s staff noticed something strange about the man--he was not wearing a uniform, let alone carrying a musical instrument--and called a Secret Service agent.

The tourist, Robert Latta, 45, a water-meter reader, was arrested on a charge of unlawful entry and held five days for psychiatric observation. He was released Friday on $1,000 bail. “I really think that the penalty was a little unjustified,” he told the Associated Press Tuesday. “I just wanted to see the ceremony. . . . I’m kind of patriotic.”

Asked if he would do “something like this again in Washington,” he said, “Yes, I would,” adding: “I’d sum it up now as a mistake.”

President Reagan was away from the White House during the Jan. 20 incident, attending an inaugural prayer service at the Washington Cathedral.

The President returned about the time Latta was being interrogated at an outside guard post and, upon reentering the White House, walked within a few feet of where the Marines had set their instrument cases and Latta had placed his unchecked overnight bag. The bag contained only some clothing and a book.

Reagan took the oath of office roughly an hour later at the foot of the grand staircase leading up to the third-floor presidential residence, approximately in the same area where Latta had walked up in street clothes with the uniformed musicians from the ground floor.

Latta’s wandering lasted either 14 minutes, according to the White House version Tuesday, or up to 40 minutes, based on the original police report, which went unnoticed by the news media until late Monday.

“I think all parties agree that there was a mistake made,” White House spokesman Larry Speakes said. “If (Secret Service) procedural adjustments are necessary, they will be made. If there is human error determined, appropriate action will be taken.”

Sentries on Roof

Anticipating a public inauguration extravaganza Jan. 21--although all outdoor events ultimately were canceled because of bitter cold--security in the nation’s capital was believed to have been among the tightest in U.S. history.

Sentries armed with Stinger anti-aircraft missiles reportedly were stationed on roofs at the White House and the U.S. Capitol. Reporters entering the White House were challenged twice at checkpoints for their credentials, instead of once as usual. Visitors and reporters in recent months have been required to walk through metal detectors at the White House and their hand-carried belongings have been searched. Concrete barricades have been installed at all entrances to prevent terrorist car-bombing attacks.

None of these security precautions stopped the Denver tourist, however, because he was standing among the 33-member Marine Corps orchestra, which has top-security clearance. The musicians in their uniform overcoats--with Latta behind them in his civilian coat--were routinely cleared past two guard posts. “I just walked in with the band,” Latta recalled.

The uninvited guest said he had gone through the regular White House guided tour four days earlier and “wandered off from the group” along with several other visitors, “so, you know, from this I didn’t see that it’d be such a bad thing to walk in.”

“As I thought about it later, I thought, well, yeah, that’s a fact, somebody could have pinned something on me, maybe a bomb or something.”

Latta wound up spending one night in a District of Columbia police precinct lockup and four nights at St. Elizabeths Hospital undergoing psychiatric observation.

Reagan was briefed in detail about the incident for the first time Tuesday by incoming Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan.