The Nation - News from June 25, 1985

Attorneys for a Navy seaman and his father, charged in Baltimore with spying for the Soviet Union, asked for separate trials, with the son’s lawyers saying he could be found guilty by association if tried with his father. The two men are John A. Walker Jr., 47, a retired Navy communications expert and his son, Michael Lance Walker, 22. The elder Walker asked that he be tried alone unless incriminating statements purportedly made by his son are excluded. The elder Walker’s brother, Arthur, a retired Navy lieutenant commander, and Jerry A. Whitworth, an associate of the Walkers, also have been charged in the case.