Scientist’s Attorneys Want Seized Evidence Suppressed

Attorneys for a scientist accused of breaching security at Los Alamos National Laboratory asked a judge Monday to throw out evidence obtained in an FBI search of his home, saying the warrant wasn’t specific.

The warrant used to search Wen Ho Lee’s White Rock, N.M., home on April 10, 1999, failed to include specific descriptions of the place to be searched or items to be seized and “failed to include the required statement regarding how the property to be seized related to any alleged criminal activity,” the defense motion said.

“Basically, the warrant gave unfettered discretion to the executing officers to seize anything,” said Lee’s attorneys, Mark Holscher, John Cline and Nancy Hollander.

Items seized, they said, included the “Selected Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant,” the address book of Lee’s daughter, telephone numbers of a church group, the membership list of the Los Alamos Chinese American Society, Lee’s school notebooks and diaries, the plays of Tennessee Williams, children’s photo albums, personal correspondence, Lee’s PhD thesis published in 1966, letters between Lee and his professors in the early 1970s and computer printouts from 1977, among other things.

The defense asked the court “to suppress all items obtained as a result of the search of Dr. Lee’s home . . . all fruits of that evidence and all other evidence, tangible or intangible, obtained directly or indirectly as a result of that search.”

First Assistant U.S. Atty. Robert Gorence said he expects to respond within 30 days.

Lee, 60, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Taiwan, is charged with downloading materials from secured computers onto unsecured computers and onto several computer tapes.

Agents say seven of those tapes are missing; Lee insists those tapes were destroyed.

Lee could face life in prison if convicted of all 59 counts. His trial is tentatively set for Nov. 6.