Mormon Issue Raised in Miller Spy Trial

Richard W. Miller was told that he had been assigned to the FBI’s Soviet counterintelligence squad in Los Angeles, partly because both he and the head of the unit were Mormons, the ex-agent’s former boss admitted Wednesday.

P. Bryce Christensen, now an assistant agent in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, made the admission during the 15th day of Miller’s espionage trial in Los Angeles federal court. His testimony focused new attention on the FBI’s handling of Miller after he was transferred to Los Angeles from Riverside in 1981, as well as the influence of the so-called “Mormon Mafia” within the FBI’s Los Angeles office.

Christensen, who headed the foreign counterintelligence squad in Los Angeles when Miller was assigned to the unit, said under questioning from one of Miller’s lawyers, Joel Levine, that the defendant was transferred from Riverside, because he needed closer supervision.

“You also told him one of the reasons he was assigned to your squad was because he was a Mormon and you were a Mormon, right?” Levine asked.

“That is correct,” Christensen said.

Issue Raised

The Mormon issue was raised by Miller’s lawyers after his arrest last Oct. 2. The attorneys charged that FBI superiors had first coddled Miller because he was a fellow Mormon, then used their religious ties in an effort to help convict him as a spy.

Richard T. Bretzing, agent in charge of the Los Angeles office, is a Mormon bishop and delivered a spiritual lecture to Miller a few days before his arrest, urging him to “repent.”

After a meeting with Bretzing last Sept. 29, Miller broke into tears and gradually began changing his version of his four-month involvement with convicted Soviet spy Svetlana Ogorodnikova, finally telling the FBI that he had shown her secret FBI documents.

While federal prosecutors claim Miller changed his story primarily because he knew he had failed polygraph tests, Miller’s lawyers have argued that Bretzing’s role in the questioning broke Miller emotionally and led to his admissions.

Spy Ring

Christensen was questioned first by U.S. Atty. Robert C. Bonner about a Sept. 27 meeting with Miller, in which the former agent volunteered that he had been involved with Ogorodnikova in an alleged effort to penetrate a Soviet KGB spy ring.

The testimony of Christensen, one of 65 witnesses in the first four weeks of the Miller trial, followed that of Agent Paul DeFlores Jr., who said Tuesday that he spotted Miller with Ogorodnikova Sept. 26 in a Little League ballpark near the FBI’s Westwood offices. DeFlores said he just happened to be in the park working on some reports. He testified that Miller made “eye contact” with him and apparently recognized him.

The Mormon issue was also raised as defense lawyer Stanley Greenberg disclosed that DeFlores had Miller’s job on the Soviet counterintelligence squad before Miller was brought in from Riverside.

“Were you told Miller was given your slot because he was a Mormon?” Greenberg asked.

“No,” DeFlores said.

“Did you want to be reassigned?” Greenberg continued.

“No,” DeFlores again responded.

Mormon Influence

Before Miller’s arrest, the question of Mormon influence was raised in a dispute between Bretzing and Bernardo (Matt) Perez, once an assistant agent in charge of the Los Angeles office.

Perez, who has run the FBI’s El Paso office since March, 1984, filed a complaint last year under the federal Equal Employment Opportunities Act, claiming that he was a victim of discrimination because he is Catholic. A decision in the matter was due two weeks ago, Perez said Wednesday in a telephone interview.

Bretzing has denied that Miller received any preferential treatment.

Agents who have privately criticized the handling of Miller as an agent contend, however, that Mormon favoritism was involved in keeping Miller in a sensitive job, even though he had shown qualities that established him as a potential target for Soviet recruitment.