Engineer Accused of Spying to Plead Guilty--Attorney
A former Northrop Corp. aerospace engineer arrested for trying to sell defense secrets to the Soviet Union has decided to plead guilty to espionage charges, because he is now “very sorry” for what he did, his attorney said Monday.
But attorney Manuel Araujo said a tentative plea bargain arrangement with the government for the guilty pleas by Thomas Patrick Cavanagh is conditional on Cavanagh’s right to appeal any unfavorable ruling on a pending motion to suppress government evidence against him in the spy case.
Faces Four Charges
Cavanagh, 40, now faces trial in Los Angeles on March 19 before U.S. District Judge Matthew Byrne Jr. on three counts of espionage and one of illegal possession of a machine gun.
Under the tentative agreement, he would plead guilty to two counts of espionage and the remaining charges would be dropped.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Percy Anderson said Cavanagh’s motion to suppress government evidence against him is under court seal, but will be heard by Bryne on March 14. If the judge denies the motion, Anderson said he expected Cavanagh to enter his guilty pleas at that time.
Cavanagh could still be subject to a sentence of life in prison on the espionage charges, Anderson said.
“He is subjecting himself to two possible life terms,” Anderson said, noting that the government was not recommending a lenient sentence. “There is no deal with respect to sentencing.”
Araujo, describing the Downey man as despondent since his arrest, said: “This man has been going through hell. . . . This man has made a mistake. He is not a criminal or a Soviet agent. . . . He is really very sorry for what he did.”
Cavanagh, an engineer at Northrop’s Pico Rivera facility, was arrested in December after allegedly trying to contact the Soviet consulate in San Francisco and the Soviet Embassy in Washington to sell secret documents about the Stealth bomber program, designed to make U.S. bombers invisible to Soviet radar.
Agents Pose as Spies
The FBI intercepted him, and undercover agents posing as Soviet operatives met with Cavanagh on three occasions, arresting him after a meeting in which he allegedly accepted $25,000 in exchange for some of his Stealth secrets.
“I’m after big money, $25,000 is a drop in the bucket, believe me,” Cavanagh was quoted as telling the agents at the Dec. 12 meeting prior to his arrest.
