Citing Flight Risk, Judge Denies Bail for Accused Spy

By RICHARD A. SERRANO

Dec. 24, 1996 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A federal judge on Monday ordered accused spy Earl Edwin Pitts held without bail until his trial--a ruling that came after prosecutors released copies of lengthy letters and other communications that the FBI senior agent allegedly wrote about plans to flee the country and continue spying abroad.

U.S. District Judge Thomas R. Jones also stressed the gravity of the charges against Pitts, saying that he had no “reasonable assurances” that the agent would not vanish or endanger others if he were released at this time.

Jones noted that a federal affidavit and a grand jury indictment last week laid out numerous charges that Pitts, 43, has spied for Moscow. And he said that “harm to national security” could follow if Pitts, a supervisory agent, were permitted to go home.

“It goes without saying this is one of the most serious charges that can be brought,” the judge said. “It carries with it at least the potential of physical danger to people.

“The defendant’s history and character are on the one hand exemplary, as one would expect of someone in the position he obtained. But the defendant’s alleged willingness to sell information for whatever reason--greed or ideology--to a foreign power is another characteristic that has to be taken into account here.”

Defense attorney Nina J. Ginsberg, who is maintaining her client’s innocence, suggested that he was unfairly entrapped by fellow FBI agents in an elaborate undercover sting operation using phony Russian intelligence officials. She contended that Pitts never acted out any plans to flee the United States. Instead, she said, he was only concerned about his own safety.

She said, for example, that even when undercover agents offered to fix Pitts up with a phony passport, he never followed through in providing them photographs.

She described another incident in which Pitts found a surveillance camera hidden in his office ceiling, and yet still did not attempt to bolt the country. “He knew he was being followed, and he told the undercover agents,” Ginsberg said. “That does not fit someone trying to evade the FBI.”

But Assistant U.S. Atty. Randy I. Bellows scoffed at any suggestion that Pitts, if released on bail, would dutifully return for trial.

“A man who is willing to betray his country for profit and to violate his oath of office as a federal law enforcement officer surely will not hesitate to brush aside a promise made to this court to appear for trial, particularly when that appearance can cost him his freedom for all or much of the rest of his life,” Bellows said.

He added that Pitts, through his 13-year career with the FBI, has developed “the skills to slip past any surveillance and, once gone, stay gone.”

The prosecutor released a series of communiques he alleged were from Pitts that showed he was planning to flee.

“It is possible to insulate one’s self from real harm even if all security systems fail,” states a September 1995 letter that Pitts allegedly wrote to a former Soviet intelligence official who was working undercover for the U.S. government.

“If I am confronted, I can use certain procedures to protect myself from any long-term harm.”

There was also a suggestion about further espionage activities abroad, the prosecutor said.

In November 1995, Pitts allegedly put together an “emergency escape” plan in his personal laptop computer.