FBI Was Close to Firing Miller for Being Overweight

The FBI was close to firing former Agent Richard W. Miller for obesity when he was arrested as a suspected Soviet spy, an FBI official revealed Thursday.

Patrick Mullany, senior administrative agent in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said Miller had been on probation for failure to lose weight for almost six months when he was arrested last Oct. 2 on espionage charges.

Prosecutors claim that Miller was bitter about his continuing reprimands for being overweight and that his unhappiness was a factor in his alleged decision to betray the FBI. Miller’s lawyers say he was frustrated by his inability to lose weight but not bitter about his treatment by the FBI.

Testifying in the third day of Miller’s spy trial in Los Angeles federal court, Mullany said Miller’s probation period was due to expire Oct. 13 and the next step for the FBI would have been to determine whether to seek Miller’s dismissal.

The FBI had reprimanded Miller about his weight as early as 1976, according to a review of Miller’s personnel files by Mullany, but it was not until April 17, 1984, that he was informed by letter that he might be fired for his “unwillingness” to slim down.

Miller, who is 5 feet 10 inches tall, entered the FBI in 1964 weighing about 180 but was as heavy as 250 pounds during the period when the FBI escalated its threats of disciplinary action against him for failing to comply with bureau weight requirements. Although Miller began seeing a psychologist for help in losing weight after he was placed on probation, he had little success in doing so and remained almost 50 pounds over the FBI’s maximum allowed weight of 193 pounds for a man of his height.

Mullany was not asked if the FBI had reached a decision about firing Miller but testified that in most cases where there is no improvement, the “only recourse” for the FBI’s Los Angeles office would have been to request that Miller be fired.

The FBI’s weight policy exists because agents “have to perform on certain occasions in a strenuous manner,” Mullany said. He added that weight control is considered a sign of personal discipline within the FBI.

Mullany, questioned by Assistant U.S. Atty. Russell Hayman, was the seventh prosecution witness called in the trial of Miller, 48, the first FBI agent ever charged with espionage.

Miller is accused of passing secret FBI documents to the Soviet Union for sex and money. Svetlana and Nikolai Ogorodnikov, who were also arrested last October, pleaded guilty on June 25 to conspiring with him.

As the trial continued in its early stages, there was a continuation of an angry exchange between one of Miller’s lawyers, Stanley Greenberg, and U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon.

Kenyon first berated Greenberg Wednesday after the attorney identified the private investigator in the Miller case, Albert L. Sayers, as a former FBI agent.

In an opening statement to the jury Wednesday, Greenberg not only identified Sayers as a former agent but said he was a former supervisor of Miller and the only FBI official who had ever taken the time to help Miller with his career problems.

After the jury was excused for lunch, Kenyon asked the lawyers for both sides to remain, and he protested that Greenberg had “deliberately deceived” him by revealing Sayers’ background. He said he had permitted the defense investigator to sit at the defense table on the condition that Greenberg would not reveal his past FBI ties.

During a later recess, Greenberg angrily protested the judge’s comments, denying that he intended to deceive him. However, Kenyon cut him off, saying he would refuse to read a written explanation that Greenberg said he planned to offer. Greenberg then stormed out of the courtroom, muttering to himself.

As the trial continued Thursday, Greenberg and Joel Levine, Miller’s co-counsel, revived the issue with a request that Kenyon allow Sayers to take his place with them at the defense table, prompting another angry reply from Kenyon.

“There aren’t going to be any more of these quickie end-runs,” Kenyon said. “Mr. Greenberg didn’t come down the pike yesterday. He’s been around a long time.

“He had an absolute moral obligation to this court. Mr. Greenberg forfeited his right to have his investigator sit there. That’s all there is to it.”