Miller’s Release Weighed by Judge

A proposal that convicted Soviet spy Richard W. Miller be released from prison on $450,000 bond while awaiting a possible third espionage trial was taken under consideration Wednesday by a Los Angeles federal judge.

“The court is not so sure how it will rule,” said U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon. “I will sleep on it. Let it sink in overnight.”

The recommendation for the release of Miller, 52, a former FBI agent who was sentenced to two life prison terms plus 50 years for passing a secret FBI document to the Soviet Union, was made by Val T. Howard, an investigator for the pretrial services section of the U.S. District Court.

A U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last month reversed Miller’s 1986 espionage conviction. He remains in federal prison in Minnesota.

Under questioning by Kenyon, Howard said interviews with Miller and others had convinced him that the former agent is not a flight risk.

While Miller’s lawyers assured Kenyon that Miller has no intention of fleeing the United States if he is granted bail, Assistant U.S. Atty. Russell Hayman strongly protested releasing Miller under any circumstances.

” . . . Any person who has spied for the Soviet Union has an open invitation to live in that country,” Hayman said. “For $100, you could take a bus to Tijuana and then a train to the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City. In essence you are then in Moscow.”