Bail Denied for CIA Officer in Espionage Case

The mother and brother of CIA spy suspect Harold J. Nicholson shed tears Monday while testifying about his patriotic upbringing, but their pleas were not enough to win his release from jail while awaiting prosecution.

As Nicholson sat 10 feet away, dressed in olive-drab prison fatigues, his mother, Betty Nicholson of Eugene, Ore., blinked back tears on the witness stand. She said that she and her husband, an Air Force veteran, taught their son patriotism and other values, and that “we never had any discipline problems with him.”

She testified at a bail hearing that they also raised their son to understand that “the most important thing was to be honest.”

“His family was very important to him,” his mother said. She offered to pledge equity in the family residence against any bond the judge might set to allow her son’s release.

But, in denying bail, U.S. District Judge Thomas Rawles Jones Jr. was not convinced, saying that the defendant might flee to avoid prosecution and that he possessed secrets he might try to pass on to the Russians.

Nicholson, 46, was charged last week with spying for Moscow in exchange for money. FBI officials said he betrayed American spies in Russia and passed along “a wide range of top-secret information” beginning in June 1994.

His attorney has said he will plead not guilty.

During the proceedings, which were held in Alexandria, Va., just outside Washington, Nicholson glanced at his mother occasionally as she testified, but for the most part he sat with his head bowed.

Robert Nicholson, 30, who lives with his parents, supported his mother’s testimony, saying “love of country” was stressed in their upbringing. He said his brother, known as Jim, graduated from Oregon State University on an ROTC scholarship before serving in the military.

“Later, when I was trying to decide if I should join the Army, Jim wrote me that it was a noble decision, an honorable decision . . . and that if you put in 110% you get out 110%,” Robert Nicholson said in a voice choked with emotion.

He described his older brother, a 16-year CIA veteran and divorced father of three, as “a loving, caring father who always took time for his children and read to them constantly.”

Asked by defense attorney Jonathan Shapiro whether Robert Nicholson thought the defendant would flee and abandon his children if released by the court, the younger brother replied: “He would not do that.”

But Jones did not agree. The evidence against Nicholson is “weighty,” Jones said, and he agreed with prosecutors that Nicholson might flee before trial.

Nicholson “may very well possess additional information that could be transmitted” to Russia, Jones said. “The possibility of flight presents a danger to the community because of the defendant’s knowledge.”

Referring to the testimony of his family, the judge added: “His background is exemplary as one would expect. Espionage by nature is an offense that can be committed by someone with the background Mr. Nicholson has.”

FBI agent Steven Hooper added a new detail to the charges Monday, telling the judge that authorities found a business card in Nicholson’s wallet upon his arrest with the name and number of a Swiss bank account containing $61,000. The additional sum pushes the total Nicholson allegedly received from the Russians up from $120,000 to $181,000.

Defense attorney Liam O’Grady told the court: “We have a legitimate explanation for the $61,000,” but he declined to give it.