Miller Sought Photos for FBI, Detective Says

Before he was fired from the FBI and charged with espionage, Richard W. Miller asked a private detective to photograph a meeting with Russians for eventual delivery to the FBI, the private detective testified Tuesday.

Hoping to prove that their client was trying to catch Soviet spies--not become one--the defense launched its case at Miller’s espionage trial in Los Angeles federal court by calling Lawrence Grayson, a Riverside private investigator.

Under interrogation by defense attorney Stanley Greenberg, Grayson reluctantly disclosed details of his meeting with Miller, the only FBI agent ever charged with espionage.

Grayson said several times that he could not remember details and only volunteered information after Greenberg showed the private detective transcripts of his accounts to the FBI.

Coffee Shop Meeting

Grayson said Miller met him Aug. 15, 1984, at a coffee shop in Corona and asked if Grayson still had sophisticated photographic equipment. The witness said he told Miller he did.

Miller then proposed that Grayson take pictures of Miller with “individuals of Russian nationality” at a meeting in Mexico, tentatively scheduled for that October, Grayson said.

“I asked basically why wasn’t he having his own people take pictures,” the detective testified. “He said because his credibility was shot, and by using me he’d get back his credibility with the bureau.”

Grayson said Miller told him that the Russians asked for a copy of the FBI personnel list.

“I told him they probably already had the document they were asking for, and once he gave them up, they owned him,” Grayson testified.

Government lawyers, meanwhile, awaited U.S. District Judge David Kenyon’s ruling today on whether they can portray the private detective as a past partner in crime with Miller.

“The jury has the right to know that a prior collusive relationship existed between Mr. Miller and this man,” U.S. Atty. Robert Bonner argued late Tuesday outside the jury’s presence. “This man (Grayson) paid cash under the table to Mr. Miller several times.”

Information From FBI Files

The defense made no mention that Grayson was the man who allegedly paid Miller for information from FBI files in 1982.

Those allegations are the subject of additional charges brought against Miller. But they were severed from this trial for prosecution at a later date because of the potentially prejudicial nature of the charges.

The government said the past acts, which were not elaborated on Tuesday, were similar to Miller’s behavior in the current case and should be admitted to show a pattern of criminal activity. They also suggested Grayson was biased toward Miller.

Greenberg noted the government granted Grayson immunity from prosecution and said, “If anything he’s biased against Mr. Miller.”

During cross-examination by Bonner earlier Tuesday, Grayson said that he and Miller discussed how much money Miller might get for documents.

“That’s when gold was mentioned,” Grayson recalled, saying Miller spoke of receiving $50,000 in gold krugerrands if his mission succeeded.

“I said he better ask for a million because no matter what happens they were going to have him for the rest of his life,” Grayson said.

The private detective said Miller later changed his mind about the photography assignment that the two code-named “Mother” and canceled it.

Miller, 48, who had been assigned to counterintelligence, was arrested Oct. 2 and charged with conspiring to pass secrets to the Soviets for $65,000.

His attorneys maintain that he had sought to redeem his faltering career by infiltrating the Russian spy network and hoped that Grayson’s photos would help him do so.

Greenberg asked the witness if Miller indicated what he would do with the pictures.

“He didn’t really discuss what he was going to do with them, except that he wanted to cover his ass,” Grayson said. “. . . He said he wanted to have his people believe him about what he was going to do.”

Grayson’s testimony came after Kenyon rejected a defense motion to throw the case out.

Defense attorney Joel Levine had argued that in six weeks of prosecution testimony, the only clear evidence of Miller’s activities were the defendant’s own admissions to various FBI agents during several days of investigation. In themselves, the statements were insufficient to convict him, the lawyer said.