Uneasy Officials Back Walker Plea : Evidence That Spy Lied Believed Too Weak; Navy Protests

Despite lingering suspicion that family spy-ring organizer John A. Walker Jr. has not told the full truth about the espionage operations, the Justice Department has decided against asking a federal judge to impose tougher sentences than those agreed to when Walker promised full cooperation, sources close to the case said Thursday.

The government faces a deadline today to move to vacate a plea agreement under which Walker was to draw a life sentence and his former sailor son, Michael, a 25-year prison term. But the Justice Department has elected to let the sentencing proceed Nov. 6, said the sources, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified.

“This doesn’t mean we believe him, and it doesn’t vouch for his credibility,” one source said. “But he has provided significant information about his activities for the Soviets” that has assisted the government in assessing damage done during the 17 years the ring is known to have operated, the source said.

‘A Bitter Pill’

Sources at the Pentagon, where the Navy opposes the bargain, expressed dismay over the decision, repeating the Navy’s contention that Walker has lied about the ring, which the government has described as one of the most damaging espionage operations in the nation’s history. They said the decision “is a bitter pill for the Navy to swallow.”

But other officials explained that, under the law, the burden would be on the government to prove that Walker had been untruthful in significant areas to overturn the plea agreement. Moreover, they added, his failure of some polygraph questions is not admissible as evidence.

“Everybody is in agreement that it is frustrating as hell that John Walker is not running clean on the polygraph . . . but it is not enough to nullify the plea agreement,” an official said.

“We cannot prove that he has been deceptive” about significant questions, another source said. “It’s difficult to reconstruct facts that go back so far and to get corroborative evidence.”

Believes Contacts Known

“There is no doubt that he was the leader, and everyone is satisfied that we know all the persons who cooperated with him,” an official said, referring to doubts that had been raised previously about Walker’s post-confession information.

Besides the father, a retired Navy warrant officer, and his son, a sailor aboard the nuclear carrier Enterprise, the ring included John Walker’s brother, Arthur, a retired Navy lieutenant commander who drew a life sentence, and John Walker’s close ex-Navy friend, Jerry A. Whitworth.

Whitworth, a retired Navy communications specialist against whom John Walker testified, drew the stiffest sentence of all--365 years in prison, making him eligible for parole if he lives to 107.

Questions about the polygraph results gave rise to a theory that the ring actually had been started by Arthur Walker before he retired from the Navy in 1973, which sparked fears that he provided the Soviets with information on U.S. anti-submarine warfare techniques. He was convicted of stealing less critical classified documents from VSE Corp., a Virginia defense contractor, after he left the Navy.

‘Significant Questions’

Despite the conclusion that John Walker did organize the operation, there are still “significant questions” about when and how it was formed, one source said. Walker testified that he began the operation by contacting the Soviets when he was under financial pressure in 1968.

Aside from the difficulty of meeting the burden of proof, Justice Department officials also concluded that there would be no substantial benefit from nullifying the agreement at this point, sources said.

In addition, a senior Pentagon official said, a “side issue” was “what kind of cooperation they can get from him in the long haul if they don’t go along with the plea bargaining.”

Expect Weinberger to Agree

“In the end, (Defense Secretary Caspar W.) Weinberger will have agreed, if reluctantly, with the Justice Department on it,” the office said.

While Michael Walker will be eligible for parole in a little more than eight years, prospects of parole for John Walker when he first becomes eligible in 10 years are “very slim,” given the severity of the crime, sources said.

John Walker will be required to continue cooperating after sentence is officially pronounced, one source said, and if there is “evidence that he breached the agreement,” he could be prosecuted for such crimes as perjury, furnishing false information and obstruction of justice.

Times staff writer James Gerstenzang contributed to this story.