Spy Told Judge in 1st Trial She Received Secret Papers : Agent Passed Secrets, Spy Told 1st Judge : Spy Testifies She Received Secret Data

In a surprise disclosure, the star witness in the Richard W. Miller spy trial today admitted that she feared her family in the Soviet Union would be harmed if she confessed publicly at the time of her guilty plea that the former FBI agent had passed her classified documents.

Svetlana Ogorodnikova confirmed under questioning by a prosecutor that she had instructed her lawyers last June to convey her admission to the judge but implored him not to reveal it publicly because of danger to her family.

The disclosure took defense attorneys by surprise. They told the judge they had never been informed of such a statement and, during a conference at the bench, they demanded a mistrial.

U.S. District Judge David Kenyon, revealing to those in the courtroom what had transpired during the secret conference at the bench, said the defense had suggested that if they had known of the information, they might not have called Ogorodnikova as a defense witness.

“The court denied a motion for mistrial and we proceeded,” Kenyon said.

Concerned About Story

Defense attorney Stanley Greenberg rose in court, saying he was concerned that the public had been told only a partial story of what transpired when Ogorodnikova pleaded guilty.

“The plea was bifurched into a public and non-public proceeding,” Greenberg told the judge. “If it had all been public, as members of the public, we would have known about it.”

The matter arose as Assistant U.S. Atty. Russell Hayman began cross-examining the Soviet woman, who on Wednesday made a tearful witness stand avowal that she and Miller are innocent of spy charges.

Hayman took her through the details of her guilty plea and she admitted she had said in court on June 26, 1985, that she was part of a conspiracy with Miller to commit espionage.

But she protested several times that she wished to explain her answers. She was told by the prosecutor to answer yes or no to the questions.

Pressed About Documents

He then began to question her on whether Miller passed classified documents to her and whether she kept that secret because she feared reprisals to her family.

“Did you tell your attorneys to tell the judge you were afraid that harm might come to your family in the Soviet Union?” Hayman asked.

“I think yes,” she answered.

After a series of further questions, which she said she didn’t understand, the judge interceded and asked, “At the time that you pleaded guilty, did you tell your lawyers they could tell me some things up here and not in public?”

“Yes,” the witness replied.

“And was one of those things that Mr. Miller had passed documents to you?” the judge asked.

“Yes, maybe I did,” Ogorodnikova said.