Selection of Jury Begins in Spy Trial of 2 Emigres

Two Soviet emigres, charged with conspiring with an FBI agent to spy, faced a panel of 175 prospective jurors Wednesday as the first stage of jury selection in their trial began.

Nickolai Ogorodnikov, 51, and his wife Svetlana Ogorodnikova, 34, are being tried separately from fired FBI Agent Richard W. Miller, 48, who is expected to be the star witness when testimony in their trial begins, probably next week.

U.S. District Judge David Kenyon gave the panelists sealed questionnaires, which they were to fill in and return to the court.

Kenyon, employing a written questionnaire like those used in last year’s John DeLorean cocaine-trafficking trial, refused to disclose publicly the questions being asked of the panelists. He said he would not reveal them until after the jury is seated.

Reference to Publicity

“In this case, there has been a certain amount of publicity,” he told the prospective jurors who crowded into his Los Angeles courtroom. “That is to be expected and that is proper.”

But he warned all 175 people that they must not discuss the case with anyone or listen to news reports about it. “Anybody becoming a member of the jury cannot be influenced by outside matters,” the judge said.

Kenyon, who has expressed concerns about publicity throughout pretrial hearings, has also clamped a “gag” order on attorneys, forbidding them to comment on the case.

The judge read segments of the indictment against the Ogorodnikovs, explaining to potential jurors that the couple were charged with conspiring to commit crimes against the U.S. government by attempting to obtain classified information for the Soviet Union from an FBI agent.

The panelists were told that the government alleges that the Soviet couple offered Miller $65,000 plus other inducements if he would give them secret documents considered important to U.S. national security.

Individual Questioning

The panelists were told to return to court Tuesday when individual questioning will be held in open court.

Meanwhile, attorneys and defendants conferred with the judge behind closed doors about questions surrounding numerous classified documents that will be in evidence.

Because of the sensitive nature of many documents, all papers in the Ogorodnikov case are being screened by court security officers before being made public.

For the first time since his indictment, Miller was absent from court Wednesday, but his attorneys were present. They said they expect he will be called to testify about halfway through the trial. The judge estimated the trial could last five to six weeks.