Spy Suspect: ‘A Kramden Minus Humor’

Former FBI Agent Richard W. Miller was a Ralph Kramden without humor, a bumbling federal agent who became a legend during his career, the attorney defending Miller against espionage charges said today.

Attorney Stanley Greenberg told jurors that they will have to decide whether Miller was attempting to become a spy for the Soviets or to become a double agent in order to help the FBI.

Miller, the first FBI agent ever tried on spy charges, is accused of passing classified documents to the Soviets for a promise of $65,000 in cash and gold and a gift of an expensive trench coat from his lover.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Robert Bonner maintained in his opening arguments Tuesday that Miller, 48, romanced Svetlana Ogorodnikov for sex and money in the summer of 1984.

Greenberg contended today, however, “There’s another side to the story to be told here.”

“The truth is he was out of his element from beginning to end,” Greenberg said. “We all know what an FBI agent looks like, and he was not it.”

Saying he hoped not to embarrass or humiliate his client, he recited a litany of Miller’s shortcomings as an agent.

“The evidence will show he was of a far lower level of intelligence than was required by the job; he had a lower level of sophistication, a lower level of skills. If you picture Ralph Kramden without the humor, you’ve got it,” the attorney said, referring to a character portrayed on TV by Jackie Gleason.