Miller Lawyers Ask for Dismissal of Spy Charges

Attorneys for Richard W. Miller asked a federal judge Friday to dismiss espionage charges against their client on grounds that the government violated his rights by convincing a psychologist to divulge confidential details of therapy sessions with the former FBI agent.

Miller’s lawyers charged that the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office violated Miller’s privacy rights by persuading Dr. Joan Glad, a clinical psychologist who treated Miller for a weight problem last year, that normal doctor-patient privilege did not apply to the former agent, because he was charged with a federal crime.

Glad said in a sworn statement filed by Miller’s lawyers that she was approached last Nov. 6 by two FBI agents, who wanted to know about her sessions with Miller.

She said that she first refused to discuss the case but was told by FBI Agent Terry Haglund that rules of confidentiality did not extend to federal charges.

“I believed him and thereafter did undertake to discuss with him matters that I otherwise would have kept confidential except for the instructions he gave me,” Glad said.

In filing for the dismissal, a matter expected to be heard by U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon early next week, attorneys Joel Levine and Stanley Greenberg argued that federal law recognizes the need for confidentiality between a psychologist and a patient.

Miller, 48, is accused with Nikolai and Svetlana Ogorodnikov of conspiring to pass FBI secrets to the Soviet Union. Miller’s trial will follow the Ogorodnikovs’.

The motion revealed for the first time that Miller was undergoing psychotherapy during the time of his involvement with Svetlana Ogorodnikova, whom he met last May 24. Greenberg said that Glad was treating him for a weight problem.

Miller now weighs about 240 pounds, his wife, Paula, said. He was frequently reprimanded by FBI superiors for his high weight and was suspended twice because of it. His wife said that Miller ballooned to about 250 pounds after his arrest last Oct. 2 but has since reduced by exercising at Terminal Island Federal Prison.

Miller, expected to testify in the Ogorodnikovs’ trial next week, said recently that he began exercising by walking 100 laps around his small room at the prison, estimating that was equal to about a mile. He said he is now up to about four miles a day.