Courier Admits Turning Over Secret Papers

WASHINGTON —  A 26-year-old former messenger for a Washington company pleaded guilty today to a reduced charge of delivering national defense documents to a person not entitled to receive them.

Randy Miles Jeffries, who was arrested Dec. 20 after allegedly offering to sell three classified documents for $5,000 to an FBI undercover agent posing as a Soviet official, now faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

In allowing Jeffries to plead guilty to the charge, the government agreed to drop an espionage charge of delivering and attempting to deliver national defense documents to Soviet agents, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Jailed Until Sentencing

U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell did not set a sentencing date but ordered Jeffries jailed pending sentencing.

The government said Jeffries, who worked for a company that transcribed testimony from secret congressional hearings, was not authorized to have access to or possession of classified information and documents for any purpose.

The government said, however, that on Dec. 14, Jeffries was directed by an official of Acme Reporting Co. Inc. to rip up transcripts classified “top secret” and “secret” and to put them in a trash barrel.

Instead, the government said, Jeffries hid some of the documents and took them home.

That same day, it said, Jeffries called the Soviet military mission in Washington and offered to sell them classified military documents.

The telephone calls by Jeffries were overhead by U.S. agents.