Wife of Accused Spy Again Refused Bail : ‘No Assurance’ Against Her Fleeing Country, Federal Judge Says

A federal judge Monday rejected a third bid for release from jail by Anne L. Henderson-Pollard, wife of accused Israeli spy Jonathan Jay Pollard, saying that there was “no doubt” she had prepared to flee the country when Pollard was arrested outside the Israeli Embassy on Nov. 21.

Henderson-Pollard, 25, was sent back to a District of Columbia jail as a second American caught in November’s wave of spy arrests, accused Soviet agent Ronald W. Pelton, launched his own bid to be freed from prison pending a trial. His plea will be heard by a federal judge in Baltimore today.

Henderson-Pollard, accused of trying to pass classified documents that her husband allegedly took from his job at the Naval Investigative Service, had twice failed to persuade a U.S. magistrate to free her on bond until a grand jury could decide whether to indict her.

Sees Threat of Escape

On Monday, U.S. District Judge John H. Pratt upheld the magistrate, agreeing that there “is no assurance that Israel . . . or some other foreign country interested in classified material” would not help her escape should she be set free.

Federal prosecutors have warned that Pollard or his wife may still have hidden classified documents that could be sold to raise money for an escape attempt. They also have openly suggested that Henderson-Pollard may be indicted on more serious espionage charges, apparently involving her reputed plans to present secret documents to officials at the Chinese Embassy.

Henderson-Pollard’s lawyer, James F. Hibey, expressed disappointment at Pratt’s ruling Monday and said that he was uncertain whether the ruling would be appealed.

In a related development, the State Department said that a team of diplomatic and FBI officials would arrive in Israel Wednesday to investigate the Israeli government’s role in the Pollard spying case “and related activities in the United States.”

Widening of Probe Denied

A State Department spokesman later denied that the statement’s reference to “related activities” implied a widening of the Israeli spying investigation beyond Pollard and his wife. A second official familiar with the matter said that the U.S.-Israeli discussions would involve only the Pollard case.

In the Pelton case, court-appointed lawyer Fred Warren Bennett asked a federal district judge in Baltimore to free Pelton until a grand jury decides whether to indict him on espionage charges. Bennett unsuccessfully made the same plea to a federal magistrate last month.

Pelton is accused of selling defense secrets to the Soviets between 1980 and last month, a period after his 1979 departure from a cryptographic position at the super-secret National Security Agency. Intelligence sources have said that he compromised a multibillion-dollar electronic espionage project targeted at the Soviet Union. They have consistently refused to say what the project involved.