Judge Wasn’t in Agency, CIA Officer Says

A CIA officer testified Thursday that a judge accused of fabricating parts of his academic and military record never served with the agency and that, contrary to the jurist’s claims, no other outfit operated clandestinely in Laos in 1968 and 1969.

The appearance of the CIA officer was the latest bit of unusual testimony in a judicial hearing for Superior Court Judge Patrick Couwenberg, who could face removal from the bench if he is found to have intentionally lied about his past.

William McNair, an information review officer for the CIA directorate of operations, said Couwenberg never worked for the agency, which he said keeps lists of every operative on its computer system.

“If I want to know Couwenberg is with us, I simple do a name trace,” McNair told a three-judge panel, which could recommend that the judge be censured, reprimanded or removed from the bench.

Couwenberg on Wednesday testified that he was recruited by a man called Jack Smith and went to Laos in 1968 and 1969 via Thailand as part of covert operations for a secret agency. That agency, he said, could have been the CIA or another clandestine U.S. government operation.

But McNair said such a story just wasn’t believable. “The CIA had been given charge of operations in Laos,” he said. “There would be no U.S. government entity conducting operations in Laos in 1968 and 1969 except the CIA.”

McNair said he is part of a team that reviews books and memoirs that agents want to publish and that he is more than familiar with the agency’s history in Laos.

The agency would never compromise “an asset” but will affirm “when there is absence of a record,” said McNair, who also served as a U.S. Army intelligence officer in Vietnam.

Attorneys for the state Commission on Judicial Performance allege that Couwenberg’s spy story is among many falsehoods the judge has stated over the years to other judges and attorneys and on judicial background reports.

Couwenberg admitted Wednesday that, although he claimed otherwise, he is not a Purple Heart-decorated Vietnam War veteran, does not hold a master’s degree in psychology from Cal State Los Angeles and never attended Caltech or Loyola Law School.

Instead, he said, he served in the U.S. Naval Reserve, attended Chaffey Junior College, Cal Poly Pomona and La Verne College of Law. But Couwenberg insisted from the stand that his wartime exploits were indeed true.

Edward P. George Jr., Couwenberg’s attorney, has said expert witnesses will testify that the judge has “pseudologica fantastica,” a condition that compels its sufferers to tell stories to enhance their self-esteem.