Stiff Discipline Sought for Medvid Case Agents : Demotions, Suspensions Recommended for Pair Who Returned Fleeing Seaman to Soviet Vessel

The two U.S. border patrolmen who returned Soviet seaman Miroslav Medvid to his ship after he twice leaped into the Mississippi River should be demoted, suspended and sent back to training school, the No. 2 official at the Immigration and Naturalization Service recommended Monday.

A decision on the recommendation by INS Deputy Commissioner Thomas C. Ferguson will be issued after 30 days by Commissioner Alan C. Nelson, who also will rule on a proposed letter of reprimand for a supervisor involved in the episode.

The stiff discipline appeared to be an attempt to cut off responsibility for the handling of Medvid--which grew into a brief international affair--at the agency’s lower levels.

Pay Cut Recommended

In addition to being dropped in civil service grade from GS-9 to GS-7--which could mean a pay cut of at least $4,000 a year--one agent would be suspended for 90 days and the other for 45 days under Ferguson’s proposal. The agents, who have not been identified, also would be reassigned to a new duty station and sent to Georgia for two weeks of retraining.

An unidentified supervisor in the Border Patrol’s New Orleans sector office would be reprimanded for not arranging for someone to substitute for him when he took medical leave at the time of the incident last month--a failure that led to the Medvid case not receiving attention from higher INS officials for several hours.

Although no other discipline is expected, Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III has ordered a management review to assess if changes are needed in the handling of political asylum cases and in the training of INS personnel.

Ferguson said he recommended the discipline because the two border patrolmen failed to follow proper procedures in handling Medvid.

Instructions Not Followed

“The INS district director was not contacted, no supervisory review of the decision to return the seaman was sought and neither the INS headquarters nor the Department of State was informed, as called for in the INS instructions to its officers,” he said.

Medvid, 25, jumped from his ship into the Mississippi on Oct. 24 and subsequently from a craft being used to take him back to the freighter. The border patrolmen, working through shipping agents, took him back to the ship, even though an interpreter who talked with him by telephone said she told them he wanted to remain in the United States.

The agents have 10 days to reply to Ferguson’s recommendation, and they can appeal Nelson’s decision to the Merit Systems Protection Board.