Miller’s Mate Now Teaching : Wife of Accused Spy Seeks Divorce

The wife of Richard W. Miller, the first FBI agent ever charged with espionage, has filed for a divorce and has been “doing a little dating” recently while Miller awaits the start of his second espionage trial.

Paula Miller, 44, the mother of Miller’s eight children, said she decided to take the action following a jury deadlock that produced a mistrial in Miller’s first espionage trial last November.

“Our marriage just didn’t have the strength to survive all this pressure,” she told The Times. “I guess that was just a foregone conclusion to some people.”

Paula Miller filed the divorce papers herself last Nov. 25 in San Diego County Superior Court in Vista, near the Miller home in the northern San Diego County community of Valley Center.

Miller’s 18-year-old deaf son, Drew, delivered the summons to his father that night at Terminal Island federal prison, where Miller has been held without bail since his arrest Oct. 2, 1984, on charges of passing secret FBI documents to the Soviet Union.

Paula Miller had tried to keep the divorce proceedings a secret in recent months as Miller’s lawyers prepared for his second trial. Jury selection is now under way and opening statements are scheduled to begin next week in Los Angeles federal court.

“I think it’s going to look awful,” she said, crying. “I love Richard. I still support him. He just sent us all Valentines that he had made for St. Valentine’s Day.”

Miller’s wife, now working full time as a sophomore English teacher at Lake Elsinore High School, said she still believes he is not guilty of espionage.

“I see him all the time. I absolutely believe in his innocence,” she said as she confirmed the divorce plans. “I’m not taking his children away from him. They all love him and see him, too.”

The divorce application cited “irreconcilable differences” between the Millers. During his first trial, testimony established that Miller had been involved in a series of adulterous affairs, including one that led to his excommunication from the Mormon Church in early 1984.

Liaison With Soviet Agent

He began a sexual relationship with convicted Soviet agent Svetlana Ogorodnikova in May, 1984, and was arrested five months later with her and her husband, Nikolai, on charges of conspiring to pass classified information to the Soviet Union.

In her application for divorce, Paula Miller listed the date of Miller’s 1984 arrest as the date of separation.

“I was 22 when I was married to Richard and I’ve been married to him for 22 years,” she said. “Richard’s not a realist. I think he thought there might be some way of avoiding this.

“I’ve been doing a little dating,” she added. “I can’t give any specifics.”

Paula Miller said she is still struggling to hold on to the Millers’ Valley Center house, but described herself as “very happy” in her new teaching job.

“The biggest trouble for me these days is working full time and taking care of the kids,” she said. “But I’m very happy. I love my work. I make a whole $19,000 a year now.”

Times staff writer Jenifer Warren in Oceanside contributed to this story.