Urged Miller to Confess, FBI Aide Says : Religious Appeal Used Because of Security, L.A. Chief Testifies

The head of the FBI’s Los Angeles office testified Friday that he delivered a religious appeal to Richard W. Miller to confess to espionage last year, because he feared that Miller had seriously hurt national defense and threatened the lives of U.S. intelligence agents.

Richard T. Bretzing, who is also a Mormon bishop, defended himself against accusations by Miller’s lawyers that he had unfairly used his religious position in urging Miller, an excommunicated Mormon, to consider the “spiritual ramifications” of his alleged espionage activities with Svetlana Ogorodnikova.

Bretzing said he urged Miller last Sept. 29 to “set the record straight” by giving FBI interrogators a full account of the potential harm done to U.S. security during his four-month involvement with Ogorodnikova.

‘National Defense’

“My concern was because I knew Mr. Miller had access to extremely sensitive information which could have endangered national defense, jeopardized ongoing investigations and placed the lives of people working for the U.S. government in jeopardy,” he said.

Bretzing has been accused by Miller’s lawyers of heading a so-called “Mormon Mafia” in the FBI’s Los Angeles office. They claim that he first coddled Miller and protected him, because he was a Mormon, then unfairly used his church ties to help indict him as a traitor.

At times responding with restrained anger to questions about the significance of his Mormon connections to Miller, Bretzing said he viewed Miller as a traitor when he questioned him three days before the agent’s arrest last Oct. 2.

FBI Instruction

“I believed from his teachings in the FBI and as a youngster and as an adult in the Mormon Church, that he had every reason to feel guilt,” Bretzing said.

“And you were trying to appeal to that guilt?” asked defense lawyer Stanley Greenberg.

“Yes,” Bretzing answered.

Bretzing, who personally headed the team that arrested Miller at his home in northern San Diego County, was subsequently one of four FBI officials to whom Miller made alleged confessions.

Miller’s lawyers say the ex-agent was strongly influenced to make his admissions by Bretzing’s religious appeal to confess. However, the government claims that Miller began changing his story during five days of FBI interrogation, primarily because he was failing FBI polygraph tests.

Bretzing testified at the conclusion of the fifth week of Miller’s spy trial in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon, who limited discussion of the Mormon issue.

The judge also disclosed new information on an earlier controversy within the FBI’s Los Angeles office over the extent of Mormon influence.

Kenyon tentatively ruled against an effort by Miller’s lawyers to inject into the case a 1984 religious discrimination complaint against Bretzing filed by former Los Angeles FBI official Bernardo (Matt) Perez with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

In announcing his ruling, the judge said he had been told by government prosecutors that the suit by Perez originally did not include charges of religious discrimination. Other sources said Perez initially claimed that he was discriminated against while assistant agent in charge of the Los Angeles office because he was a Latino.

“The government pointed out these other allegations (religious discrimination) were added by Mr. Perez after this case began,” Kenyon said.

Perez, now agent in charge of the FBI’s El Paso office, has a pending Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint against Bretzing, saying he was discriminated against in the Los Angeles office because he was a Roman Catholic. Lawyers said, however, that charge was added last November, after the Mormon Mafia issue surfaced in the Miller case.

A decision on the complaint by Perez was due in mid-August, Perez said recently. The FBI, however, said the commission has not yet decided the matter.

Perez was not available for comment Friday.

General Ineptitude

While Bretzing testified, Miller’s lawyers confronted him with a claim that Perez had urged Bretzing to fire Miller from the FBI in 1982 because of his weight, his general ineptitude as an agent and a psychiatric report suggesting that he was on the verge of a breakdown.

“Didn’t Perez suggest Miller be terminated because he was an unreliable agent?” Greenberg asked.

“Absolutely not,” Bretzing replied.

At one point, suggesting that Bretzing’s career was threatened by the Miller case, Greenberg asked the witness if he had personal concerns when he delivered his tough spiritual appeal to Miller to confess.

“Did you have any concerns about your own career?” the attorney asked.

“I’m concerned about my career, and I have been for the last 25 years,” Bretzing answered.