New U.S. Indictment Seen in Spy Case

A defense attorney for accused Navy spy Jerry A. Whitworth said Monday that he expects a new federal indictment to be handed down against his client today, including charges based on grand jury testimony by convicted spymaster John A. Walker Jr.

Attorney Tony Tamburello said if this turns out to be true, he and chief defense attorney James Larson may seek a delay in the scheduled Jan. 13 start of the Whitworth trial.

Assistant U.S. Atty. William Farmer would not confirm that a new indictment was imminent, but indicated in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge John P. Vukasin Jr. that his team of prosecutors is delaying filing motions pending new developments.

Walker, who has promised the government he will cooperate in prosecution of Whitworth, a Navy acquaintance, was in San Francisco last week to testify before the grand jury. Walker, a career Navy officer, pleaded guilty in Baltimore Oct. 28 to espionage charges in an agreement that required him to cooperate in proceedings against Whitworth.

Whitworth, 46, had left the Navy and his job as a chief radioman by the time he was implicated in the espionage case.

Meanwhile, testimony contunued in Vukasin’s court on defense motions to suppress statements made by Whitworth to FBI agents who interrogated him in his home May 20, and to invalidate a search of Whitworth’s premises on that date. Whitworth claims he was coerced into speaking without an attorney present and into consenting to the search.

FBI agent John P. Petrson acknowledged under cross examination that 32 minutes went by between the time Whitworth declined to allow the search and then reversed himself and allowed it. During that time, another agent had told him he might be thrown in jail and his wife thrown out of their mobile home pending obtaining of a search warrant.

The judge continued the evidentiary hearing on the suppress motions to next Monday.