THURSDAY, JULY 1, 2010
KLMNO POLITICS THE NATION &
Children of accused spies face an uncertain future
by Paul Schwartzman and Jerry Markon
The men and women arrested on suspicion of operating a Rus- sian espionage ring in the United States face long prison terms if they are convicted. But the future for their children — seven Amer- ican-born offspring born to four couples, most of them allegedly Russian citizens — lacks even that degree of definition. What will become of the grade school sisters in Montclair, N.J., one of whom was at a friend’s birthday party Sunday as FBI agents hauled away her parents? Or the 1- and 3-year-old siblings in Arlington, whom agents briefly left with county officials after their parents were apprehended? Or the brothers in Cambridge, Mass., whom neighbors saw last week helping their parents move into a new home? Now the brothers’ parents, known as Donald Heathfield and Tracey Lee Ann Foley, are in feder- al custody, and the children — one an adult, the other a teenager, ac- cording to neighbors — are home alone. “I’m waiting for an impor- tant call. Please don’t call back,” one brother, Tim Heathfield, said Wednesday before hanging up. Justice Department officials, citing privacy laws, declined to comment on what steps they have taken to care for the children of the espionage suspects. But Dean Boyd, a Justice spokesman, said children of defendants in federal cases are generally placed in the care of state child protection agen- cies. “We recognize the impor- tance of proper care for the chil- dren in this case,” he said. Each of the four purportedly married couples charged — the in- dictment documents say some were paired off by Russian intelli- gence authorities — has children,
and law enforcement officials said the defendants have all suggested friends as guardians for their kids. Child protective service agencies in Virginia, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts will decide whether those friends will take custody of the children while the case winds through the legal sys- tem, officials said. The defendants, who author-
ities say are Russian operatives sent to the United States as long- term plants, have no relatives in this country. In two cases, it’s possible that older children of the suspects might wind up caring for younger children, officials said. Two cou- ples who are charged — Heath- field and Foley, and Vicky Pelaez and Juan Lazaro of Yonkers, N.Y. —have one adult child each. Federal officials often notify child protective services in ad- vance of arrests, and FBI victim- witness coordinators help ensure that children of defendants are cared for. In this case, a law en- forcement official said, “people were well aware of the children and planned for it.” The FBI broke up the alleged
spy network, arresting 10 suspects in Arlington, Montclair, Yonkers, Manhattan and Cambridge. An 11th suspect captured in Cyprus went missing Wednesday, a day af- ter being released on bail. Investigators said the suspects ensconced themselves in the American mainstream, masking their mission: to gather informa- tion on topics such as nuclear weapons and U.S. relations with Iran. Their children helped them establish a patina of normalcy. Waldo Mariscal, 38, the son of
Pelaez and stepson of Lazaro, de- scribed his mother’s arrest as “ri- diculous” and “political persecu- tion.” “We have nothing to do with this,” Mariscal told El Diario, a Spanish-language newspaper in
New York. “My mother barely speaks English. She’s going to speak Russian?” Preston Burton, a lawyer who represented convicted spies Al- drich H. Ames and Robert P. Hanssen, said espionage cases can place “extraordinarily difficult” strains on families, particularly when both parents are arrested. The government “usually seeks
restrictive measures which can prevent family members from see- ing the arrested relatives,” Burton said. “The notion is that people who are accused of passing classi- fied information present that risk at all times.” Ames’s son, Paul, was 5 in 1994, when his parents were arrested. Because of publicity, the boy moved with his grandmother to her native Colombia. Ames’s legal team had to seek a judicial order to free $500 of the family’s frozen assets to care for the youngster. Until the arrests, most of the children of the spying suspects seemed entrenched in the routine rhythms of childhood. Michael Zottoli and Patricia
Mills, arrested in Arlington, have two children. Their former neigh- bors in Seattle recalled the parents doting on their oldest son, now 3. On Marquette Street in Mont-
clair, neighbors said they often saw Richard Murphy walk his two daughters, Katie, 11, and Lisa, 7, to the bus stop, where they would catch a ride to Hillside School. The girls frolicked with other children in the neighborhood, of- ten riding their pink bicycles or playing tag and a ballgame called Spuds. One recent afternoon, they joined other neighborhood girls in running a lemonade stand.
schwartzman@washpost.com markonj@washpost.com
Staff writers Maria Glod, Philip Rucker and Kevin Sieff and staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
One sultry suspect draws Internet buzz — and photo galleries. C1 DIGEST NEW YORK
Detectives’ killer spared death penalty An appeals court on Wednes-
day tossed out the first federal death sentence given in New York in five decades, finding that pros- ecutors improperly advised a jury after it convicted a man of killing two undercover police detectives who were posing as gun buyers. The U.S. Court of Appeals for
the 2nd Circuit in Manhattan va- cated the death sentence given to Ronell Wilson in 2007. The court found that prosecutors violated Wilson’s constitutional rights by arguing that Wilson failed to ac- cept responsibility for his crime because he went to trial. The appeals court said it was unconstitutional to “disallow the death penalty for those who plead guilty but allow it for those who exercise their right to a trial.”
—Associated Press CALIFORNIA
Hamas founder’s son granted U.S. asylum An immigration judge in San
Diego tentatively granted asylum Wednesday to the son of a Hamas founder who turned his back on
his father’s terrorist group and became a spy for Israel. The ruling came after the fed-
eral government, without expla- nation, abruptly dropped con- cerns that Mosab Hassan Yousef was a terrorist threat. Yousef, 32, had argued that he would be killed if he were to be deported because he spied on Ha- mas for Israel’s Shin Bet intelli- gence agency and abandoned Is- lam after becoming a Christian. —Associated Press
ILLINOIS
Blagojevich: Obama wouldn’t do a deal
An angry Rod Blagojevich is heard grumbling on FBI wiretap tapes played at his corruption trial Wednesday that he is willing to appoint a favorite of Barack Obama to the U.S. Senate, but the newly elected president is “all take and no give.” “The arrogance of these peo-
ple,” Blagojevich, then the Illinois governor, is heard saying a few days after Obama’s 2008 election. The governor is heard saying he wants a reward, such as being named secretary of health and human services, in return for ap- pointing Chicago businesswom- an and civic leader Valerie Jar- rett, now a White House senior
adviser, to the Senate seat that the president-elect was leaving. —Associated Press
Review of Gates arrest finds fault on both sides: The arrest last summer of Harvard profes- sor Henry Louis Gates Jr. outside his home could have been avoid- ed, according to a review com- missioned by the Cambridge, Mass., police department. The in- vestigation, conducted by outside experts, said Sgt. James Crowley “missed opportunities to find a better outcome.” It chided Gates for not immediately complying with the officer’s requests.
Four dead in N.J. blaze: A house fire in Paterson, N.J., on Wednes- day left four people dead and three people seriously injured. Fire officials said the owner had been cited for electrical viola- tions.
Rotting baggage disrupts flight: US Airways says maggots falling from a container of spoiled meat in an overhead bin forced a plane to return to the gate in Atlanta. A passenger brought the container onto the plane, and passengers noticed the maggots on Monday on the flight bound for North Carolina. The plane was taken out of service and fumigated. —Staff reports and news services
Texas dodges a bullet
John Harris runs in the wind and rain as the outer bands of Hurricane Alex are felt on South Padre Island, Tex. Alex, a Category 2 storm, made landfall in northeast Mexico on Wednesday night.
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