Death Is Ruled Out for Soldier Facing Trial for Espionage

An Orange County soldier charged with espionage for allegedly passing defense secrets to East Germany will stand trial by court-martial, but prosecutors have decided not to seek the death penalty, military officials said Wednesday.

Spec. 4 Michael A. Peri, 21, an expert on Warsaw Pact radar equipment, will go on trial June 6 on charges of espionage, illegally entering East Germany, possessing classified documents, larceny of military property and making a false statement to military authorities, Maj. Samuel Taylor, deputy public affairs officer of the 5th Army Corps, said in a telephone interview from Frankfurt, West Germany.

The maximum penalty in espionage cases is death, but Taylor said that the 5th Corps commander, Gen. John Woodmansee, decided that Peri’s case would not be tried as a capital offense.

“The maximum sentence he could receive is life in prison,” Taylor said.

Taylor declined to say why Woodmansee declined to seek the death penalty, saying only that the decision was based on a review of the evidence and interviews with Peri’s company and regimental commanders.

Peri, who went to La Quinta High School in Westminster and whose family lives in Laguna Niguel, is being held in the Army Confinement Facility in Mannheim, West Germany. His parents could not be reached for comment.

Peri was charged with espionage and the other offenses after he allegedly crossed into East Germany and gave officials there sensitive information about the defensive deployment of U.S. tanks and helicopters.

Peri, who worked in intelligence with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fulda, West Germany, disappeared Feb. 21 with a military Jeep and a laptop computer from his office. He reappeared with the computer 12 days later and turned himself in to base officials.

Taylor said Peri was charged after an investigation revealed he had taken classified documents from a storage area and had given them to East German officials. The documents, according to military officials, related to the 11th Armored Cavalry’s general defense plans, specifically the regiment’s role in defending itself from an attack by Warsaw Pact forces.

The 11th Armored Cavalry is positioned on the strategic Fulda Gap, a traditional invasion route to Western Europe and a likely avenue for Soviet-bloc tanks in the event of war.

Taylor said Peri had retained two civilian attorneys in addition to two attorneys provided by the military. Heading the defense team is Maj. William G. Stokes, senior defense counsel for the Trial Defense Service based in Frankfurt.

According to Taylor, Peri will be held in the Mannheim facility until the trial.

Taylor said Peri has two choices: a court-martial before one military judge, who would hear the case and then rule on Peri’s guilt or innocence, or a trial before a panel of at least five military officers.

He said the trial would be held in the Abrams Courtroom at the Abrams complex in Frankfurt, headquarters for the 5th Army Corps in West Germany.