Fear of the Future : Spy Convicted in FBI Case Is Fighting Deportation

Nikolai Ogorodnikov, a diminutive Soviet from Kiev, was a principal in the sensational spy case of former FBI agent Richard W. Miller, and served five years in prison for his part in the scandal.

Not surprisingly, the federal government wanted to deport Ogorodnikov, a legal resident since 1977. The process was halted by a judge’s order last year only so he would be available to testify at Miller’s trial.

In the meantime, Ogorodnikov got out of prison and became a hero. While working a $6.25-an-hour job as an airport van driver for the Hampton Inn on La Cienega Boulevard, he grappled with a gunman who tried to hijack the van, protecting the passengers and holding the gunman until police arrived.

It was “an act of courage and an example of an exemplary citizen,” said United Airlines Capt. Daniel W. Bargar in a letter to the Hampton Inn president.

This month, U.S. Dist. Judge Robert M. Takasugi signed an order that cleared the way for Ogorodnikov’s deportation. But some believe that he should not be forced to leave the country.

Deporting Ogorodnikov “is absolutely not fair,” said Los Angeles immigration attorney Helen Sklar. “He’s a very, very hard-working guy. He’s demonstrated his citizenship, skills and his commitment to making America a better place.”

Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s Western Region, sees it differently.

“Less than 10 years ago, this man was turning over potentially compromising information to a foreign government,” she said.

Ogorodnikov, meanwhile, awaits the next turn in his roller-coaster life at his modest apartment in Los Angeles.

“I am disappointed, I am very worried,” Ogorodnikov, 59, told a visitor to his West Hollywood apartment.

“I don’t think my dad wants to go back,” said his son, Matthew, 19, who arrived from the Soviet Union last Saturday after being separated from his father for six years.

That’s true, Ogorodnikov said in heavily accented English. “I want to stay here with my son so I can provide for him and protect him.”

Ogorodnikov, with his wife, Svetlana, 41, pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court in June, 1985, to conspiracy to commit espionage. They had been arrested the previous October with Miller and accused of conspiring to pass secret FBI documents to the Soviet Union.

Miller, the first FBI agent ever convicted of espionage, was sentenced in February to 20 years in prison.

Svetlana Ogorodnikov is serving an 18-year sentence at the Federal Correctional Institute at Pleasanton. Her husband was released in February, 1990, after serving five years of an eight-year sentence.

While both were still in prison, they sent their son to live with relatives in Kiev.

About a year after Ogorodnikov was released, immigration attorney Sklar began cutting through red tape in Washington and Moscow to retrieve his son’s green card so he could return to the United States. She succeeded, and Matthew Ogorodnikov flew into Los Angeles International Airport from Moscow on Saturday.

Ogorodnikov and his son are alike and different. The father is only 5-foot-4, but has a muscular build and wisps of graying hair. His son is short of stature at 5-foot-6 and packs muscles developed on a Soviet wrestling team.

But while Ogorodnikov can explode with emotion and wave his arms to make a point, as he did while sitting at a small kitchen table, his dark-haired son is more reflective and controlled. He mostly listened to his father, sometimes translating questions into Russian.

Matthew Ogorodnikov, who was born in Kiev, emigrated to Los Angeles as an infant and speaks English and Russian without an accent. He studied for 18 months at Kiev State University and wants to attend medical school in the United States.

He said his first days back in Los Angeles have been exciting. “We just talk about all kinds of stuff,” he said. “I really don’t want my dad deported.”

As soon as Ogorodnikov was released from a Washington prison in February, 1990, he was taken into custody by INS agents and brought before an immigration judge in Seattle.

A felony conviction does not automatically mean an immigrant will be deported. Following a hearing, however, the judge ordered him deported based on his espionage conviction.

“Nikolai made the decision not to appeal,” said his immigration attorney, Robert Pauw of Seattle. “The bond was too high and he decided he didn’t want to sit in jail during the long appeal.”

But before the government could put him on a plane to Moscow, Judge Takasugi blocked his deportation when Miller’s lawyers said they might need him to testify at Miller’s third trial last year. It was this order that Takasugi eliminated last week.

The director of the INS Los Angeles district, Robert M. Moschorak, said he had “tremendous reluctance” discussing the case. “There are some bases we have to touch first before making any decisions on what we’re going to do with this particular individual,” he said.

To this day, Ogorodnikov says “Miller never gave (Svetlana) anything.” He says they pleaded guilty at the request of their lawyers, who warned that the two faced life prison terms if they lost their court battles.

“They are not spies,” said their longtime friend and compatriot, Nadia Mathison of Los Angeles. “They are not capable of that.”

Assistant U.S. Atty. John Libby, who helped prosecute Miller, said, “(Nikolai) played a crucial role in this whole matter. . . . Svetlana consulted with him at each stage, after each meeting with Miller and, in fact, introduced him to Miller as an officer of the KGB.”

Libby said immigration officials asked that Takasugi’s order blocking Ogorodnikov’s deportation be lifted shortly after Miller’s conviction in October.

“I filed the motion and set it for a hearing for July 8,” Libby said. A copy was sent to Miller’s attorney, Gregory Nicholayason, since it was at Miller’s request that Ogorodnikov be held in this country as a possible witness.

For his part, Nicholayason said, “my focus is on my client (Miller)” and not Ogorodnikov. Still, he said, the government should have provided Ogorodnikov “with some sort of notice. It’s a due process right.”