FBI Coerced Talk, Spy Suspect Says : Whitworth Claims He Was ‘Psychologically Beaten Down’

Accused Navy spy Jerry A. Whitworth took the stand Friday for the first time, testifying in federal court that he was “psychologically beaten down” last May when he allowed two FBI agents to interrogate him and search his home without a warrant.

“I felt desperate,” Whitworth said in seeking to have the statements suppressed and the search ruled invalid. “I was being bombarded psychologically; I was up against something beyond my control.”

The two agents, Michael S. McElwee and John Peterson, testified that Whitworth voluntarily consented to both the interrogation and the search, during which purported espionage paraphernalia was seized.

Whitworth, 46, who served in the Navy with convicted spymaster John A. Walker Jr., is set to go on trial Jan. 13. Walker and his son Michael pleaded guilty Oct. 28 to espionage charges in an agreement requiring the elder Walker to cooperate fully in proceedings against Whitworth.

$332,000 Pay Alleged

Whitworth, a Navy chief radioman with access to top secret materials, is alleged to have provided sensitive data to Walker for transmission to the Soviet Union. The government claims he was paid $332,000.

The well-dressed Whitworth, who has been in custody since his arrest June 3, seemed relaxed Friday as he gave brief, crisply worded answers.

Under questioning from his chief defense attorney, James Larson, he said he had consented to have his mobile home in Davis, Calif., searched May 20, a day after John Walker was arrested, only after McElwee had told him that if he didn’t cooperate, “ ‘We can put you in the local jail overnight and get a search warrant for this place.’ ”

Even then, a warrant might take a long time to obtain and in the meantime his home would be sealed and his wife, Brenda L. Reis, would have to find another place to live, Whitworth said McElwee had told him.

Possibilities Only

McElwee testified that he had mentioned these things as possibilities but had told Whitworth that neither he nor the other agent had authority to act on his own. He also said he had told Whitworth he was not sure what would happen if he did not agree to a search.

Whitworth also testified that neither agent formally read him his rights to have an attorney present until the conversation was well under way. By that time, he said, he had been asked whether he had been involved in espionage with Walker and warned that he could get a life sentence.

McElwee said, however, that only 12 minutes elapsed between the time the agents sat down with Whitworth and the time he signed the waiver allowing the interrogation to proceed without his lawyer present.

U.S. District Judge John P. Vukasin said the central question is whether Whitworth was acting voluntarily at the time or was coerced.

Testimony is set to resume Monday.