Military Statute of Limitations Expires : Tustin Marine Held in Spy Inquiry to Go Free

A Tustin, Calif.-based Marine arrested last month in an espionage investigation will be released from the brig at Camp Pendleton because the military statute of limitations has expired in his case, the Marine Corps announced Wednesday.

But the Corps said that it will seek to discharge Sgt. John J. Weirick, who was a guard at the U.S. consulate in Leningrad in 1981 and 1982 when security breaches allegedly occurred there, and that it will refer his case to the Justice Department for possible civilian prosecution.

A Justice Department spokesman said that “we are going to take the case under review” but that there are no plans for civilian authorities to arrest Weirick on his release from the brig, where he has been detained since April 7.

Weirick’s family was waiting Wednesday night for word from him.

“We still wait for more details; we just pray for him to get out,” Joy Weirick, the Marine’s stepmother, said Wednesday afternoon in a phone interview from her Los Angeles home. She said Weirick’s wife, Betty, was to call her with news of a release time.

She said that she is expecting to see him “tonight or tomorrow morning” and that she is looking forward to having a reunion with him.

Weirick, 26, of Eureka, Calif., was a member of the six-man Marine security detachment at the Leningrad consulate from Nov. 18, 1981, to Dec. 2, 1982. He was serving at the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station in Orange County when he was arrested for what Pentagon spokesman Robert Sims described at the time as “suspicion of espionage and unreported contacts with Soviet civilians, including women.”

However, military prosecutors ran afoul of the three-year statute of limitations set by the Uniform Military Code of Justice. Under civilian federal law, the statute of limitations is five years, the Justice Department spokesman said.

In announcing that Weirick will be freed from the Camp Pendleton brig, the Marines said he “will be returned to his unit in a full-duty status. However, because of the seriousness of the alleged offenses, it is anticipated that he will be recommended for administrative discharge.”

A Justice Department spokesman said Weirick could be prosecuted under civilian law even while he is in the military. But the spokesman stressed that no decision will be made until the department’s review is completed.

The Marine Corps announced Weirick’s release only days after it had dropped the most explosive charges against Sgt. Clayton J. Lonetree, a former guard at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and the first arrested in the investigation of security breaches.

A Marine general ruled last week that Lonetree could not be prosecuted for allegedly allowing Soviet agents into the embassy’s secure areas because the charges were based on hearsay evidence. But Lonetree was ordered held for a court-martial on charges that he allegedly provided classified information and documents to the Soviets.

Recanted Confession

Pretrial hearings are now under way for Lonetree’s accused accomplice, Cpl. Arnold Bracy, a former Moscow guard who has recanted a confession that figured prominently in the Marines’ case against Lonetree.

Pentagon officials have said the only connection between Weirick’s case and those of Lonetree and Bracy is that Weirick’s alleged misconduct was discovered as the result of the Lonetree investigation.

Joy Weirick said that she had not seen her stepson for eight weeks but that he has corresponded with his father and her. In turn, she said, she sent him some short stories and historical novels “just something to do for him.”

He has, however, seen his wife and son, John Joseph Jr., who was born five weeks ago.

“He got to see his son when they visited there,” Joy Weirick said, referring to the brig.

‘Cried a Lot’

Betty Weirick has “had a rough time” since her husband’s confinement, Joy Weirick said. “We’ve cried a lot. When she calls she cries a lot. But I’ve told her just take it easy.”

Weirick has not yet offered his father and stepmother his version of the events that led to his confinement, Joy Weirick said.

“But I was surprised when I read the magazine,” the stepmother said. “But it’s all right now. It’s passed. We look forward to just letting it go. . . . We know him as a nice, an honest boy.”

Times staff writer Nancy Wride in Orange County contributed to this story.