Non-Mormons Put Miller in Job, Agent Says

In testimony challenging the alleged influence of a so-called Mormon Mafia inside the Los Angeles office of the FBI, a high-ranking Mormon agent disclosed Wednesday that Richard W. Miller was assigned to his fateful career in FBI counterintelligence by two non-Mormon officials.

P. Bryce Christensen, an assistant special agent in the Los Angeles office, told the jury in Miller’s espionage trial that the decision to place Miller on the Soviet counterintelligence squad was made in late 1981 by Edgar N. Best and William Baker, who were then the two top officials in the FBI’s local office.

Under questioning by U.S. Atty. Robert C. Bonner aimed at defusing the embarrassing side issue of Mormon influence in the Miller case, Christensen declared that neither Best nor Baker is Mormon and added that Miller’s transfer to Los Angeles was made before the arrival the following year of Richard T. Bretzing, the current agent in charge of the Los Angeles office. Bretzing is a Mormon bishop.

Christensen, questioned by defense lawyer Joel Levine, said he was in charge of the counterintelligence squad when Miller was placed in the unit by Best and Baker, partly because they felt that Christensen’s Mormon religious ties to Miller might be a positive influence in helping the agent overcome a variety of career problems.

“I indicated to him that Baker and Best had indicated to me he was being transferred to my squad because he needed closer supervision and that he was being transferred to my squad because of our common religious background,” Christensen said.

At the beginning of Miller’s supervision period, Christensen continued, the overweight agent was required to submit to weekly FBI weigh-ins in an attempt to solve one of the problems that had contributed to previous poor performance reviews.

However, Christensen said, a psychiatric report in December, 1982, by Dr. David Soskis, employed by the FBI to treat agents’ problems, suggested that the close supervision of Miller was bringing him near a possible breakdown.

As a result of the report by Soskis, Christensen said, another non-Mormon official, Bernardo (Matt) Perez, who had become the second-ranking agent in the Los Angeles office, suggested that Christensen take some of the pressure off Miller by canceling the weekly weigh-ins.

Perez discussed the psychiatric report in a Dec. 22, 1982, memo to Bretzing, who had become the agent in charge of the Los Angeles office and was later to be the target of a religious discrimination complaint by Perez that fueled the Mormon controversy.

In the 1982 memo, introduced by the defense Wednesday, Perez wrote: “Dr. Soskis pointed out that in view of the fact that Mr. Miller has only four years to go, it is not prudent to believe he can be revamped into a new agent, and, therefore, efforts should be made to help him hold together as he does not appear to be very resilient.

“Specifically, he requested that his overweight matter not be emphasized as a problem at this time since, although Mr. Miller is overweight by bureau standards, his health is not as endangered from his weight as much as the danger facing him from his inabilities to cope with his family and work situations.

“Dr. Soskis suggested that this be discussed with Mr. Miller and that he be told that he is expected to hold his weight at the present time and is not to consider it as serious as other matters that he has to deal with.”

After the Perez memo, Christensen stopped the weigh-in requirements. But his replacement on the Soviet intelligence squad, Gary Auer, later renewed pressure on Miller to lose weight. At the time of his arrest on espionage charges last Oct. 2, the 240-pound agent was on probation and faced the threat that he would be fired for failing to lose weight.

The trial was recessed until Monday by U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon after a dispute between Miller’s lawyers and the government over the need to call FBI Director William Webster as a witness in the case. Miller’s lawyers want to subpoena Webster, but the U.S. attorney’s office opposes the move as “silly and ridiculous.”

Kenyon did not explain how he intends to resolve the issue of whether the defense will be permitted to force Webster to testify.