Judge Issues Gag Order in Stolen Jet Parts Case

A federal judge Monday issued a broad gag order to prevent seven people charged with stealing F-14 fighter parts from the Navy and smuggling them to Iran from discussing the controversial case further with news reporters.

The gag order, issued by U.S. District Judge Earl B. Gilliam, also applies to defense attorneys, federal prosecutors and potential witnesses.

Gilliam also removed himself from hearing the case, an action prompted by what a spokeswoman for the judge characterized as a possible “conflict of interest.” She declined to elaborate.

Gilliam gave no reason for his gag order. However, federal prosecutors and agents already have held two press conferences to discuss details of the alleged smuggling ring.

When one defense attorney, Lonn E. Berney of New York, tried to ask questions about the gag order, the judge cut him off in mid-sentence and admonished him to discuss “nothing about the case” with the press.

Later, Gilliam issued a statement about the gag order through his spokeswoman:

“The order directs that attorneys, court personnel, enforcement and witnesses are to refrain from releasing any information which might interfere with the rights of the defendants to a fair trial. That will be in effect until the new judge takes over and issues other orders.”

U.S. Atty. Peter K. Nunez said his office did not request the gag order. By late Monday, the case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Leland C. Nielsen.

The news blackout and shift in judges are the latest twists in the case, which has drawn wide publicity because of its implications for national security.

Seven people, including two Navy sailors and a Navy civilian employee, have been indicted for allegedly stealing parts for the F-14 fighter and shipping them illegally to Iran. The alleged ring is thought to have begun as early as 1981, and involved the theft of sophisticated computers and other critical equipment stolen from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, Navy warehouses and other ships. The stolen parts were sent from San Diego to London.

Franklin P. Agustin, 47, a Canadian citizen living illegally in the San Diego area, and his wife, Julie, 46, were named as principals in the alleged smuggling ring. According to court documents, Agustin, a National City insurance agent, and his wife, a travel agent, kept a stock of stolen F-14 parts in the garage of their Tierrasanta home and at a self-storage facility in San Diego.

Other charged were Saeid Asefi Inanlou, an Iranian national living in London; Edgardo P. Agustin, 35, Franklin’s brother from New York; Pedro M. Quito, 60, a civilian working in the Navy warehouse at North Island; Primo Cayabyab, 36, sailor and aviation storekeeper on the Kitty Hawk; and Antonio G. Rodriguez, a storekeeper on the amphibious assault ship Belleau Wood.

Although federal agents began their investigation into the alleged ring in February, 1983, they did not begin intercepting shipments from Franklin Agustin to Inanlou in London until December, 1984. Only eight of the 26 known shipments to the Iranians from the ring were intercepted, federal prosecutors have said.

Meanwhile, at a bail hearing in federal court here on Monday for Edgardo Agustin, Berney argued that his client should be released because his two daughters have been “devastated” by their mother’s death in June and their father’s arrest in New York last month.

“He has no roots in the Philippines compared to the other (suspects) and he owns no land there,” Berney said. “I have never felt before as I do now that the defendant is not a bail risk.”

Berney described the military parts listed in court affidavits and that Agustin allegedly shipped to Iran as “a lot of junk that when (put) together couldn’t make a plastic plane fly.”

But Assistant U.S. Atty. Phillip Halpern said Agustin had the contacts and financial resources to flee the country if he were released on bail. As an example, Halpern said, records obtained from a Virginia Beach bank showed that Agustin had deposited $214,000 in 1981 and 1982.

Halpern also made references to wiretapped conversations in which Agustin allegedly stated that he had obtained “$560,000 worth of stolen equipment” to ship to Iran.

U.S. Magistrate Roger C. McKee continued the hearing until today