Pair Charged With Possessing Secret Intelligence Documents

A former National Guard officer and his ex-wife, charged with possessing national security documents, had illegally obtained top secret information related to U.S. chemical, nuclear and biological capabilities, federal authorities said Thursday.

The stolen documents still have not been recovered, an FBI agent testified at a detention hearing for Rafael Davila, 51, and Deborah Davila, 46.

“They are worth, on the black market, millions of dollars, and would be of huge interest to militias and terrorist organizations,” FBI agent Lee McEuen testified. “Based on that, I believe, they are a huge danger to the United States.”

Assistant U.S. Atty. Earl Hicks said there was no evidence the documents had reached foreign governments.

U.S. Magistrate Cynthia Imbrogno decided the two would remain in jail until a final bail determination is made today. Deborah Davila is a special- education teacher in Pasco.

Defense lawyers argued that the Davilas had cooperated with the government since 1999, and were not a danger to the community or a flight risk.

Roger Peven, a federal defender assigned to Rafael Davila, said his client was a decorated Vietnam veteran who had cooperated with law enforcement officers.

Hicks said that Rafael Davila’s alleged theft of boxes of documents, and Deborah Davila’s alleged efforts to sell them, showed they had little regard for the safety of the United States.

If convicted, the Davilas could face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and fines of $250,000. Hicks said they would be facing life sentences had the documents been sent to foreign governments or individuals.

Hicks also noted that the Davilas probably still control the documents and have not told agents where to find them.

Because many of the documents are secret or top secret, prosecutors declined to reveal what specific information they contained.

Deborah Davila sold three batches of documents for $2,000 per batch, sending them to three different states, McEuen said.

McEuen said the documents had titles like “Strategic, Korea, Russia, chemical warfare, chemical mixtures, nuclear, biological.”

Rafael Davila is a retired major in the Washington Army National Guard, retiring as an intelligence officer in 1999. He was married briefly to Deborah Davila in the 1990s.

Davila was arrested at his parents’ home in Ontario, Ore., and Deborah Davila was arrested at her home in College Place, near Walla Walla, Wash.

A federal indictment charged Deborah Davila with lying to federal agents when she said she did not know Kirk D. Lyons of Black Mountain, N.C., a lawyer known for representing the Ku Klux Klan, White Patriot Party and Posse Comitatus.

Lyons is not charged with any crime, but prosecutors contend Deborah Davila falsely denied knowing him in August 1999. Lyons said Wednesday that he did not know Rafael Davila, barely knew Deborah Davila and considered the allegations ridiculous.

The indictment alleges that from Jan. 1 to Aug. 20, 1999, the Davilas had unauthorized possession of sensitive documents and failed to deliver them to the person entitled to receive them.

Deborah Davila was also charged with trying to deliver the documents to an unidentified person who was not authorized to receive them in the period Aug. 1 to 15, 1999.

The indictment contends that around Aug. 20, 1999, Deborah Davila falsely told federal agents she did not recognize the name of Lyons and was certain she had never met him.