SPOKANE, Wash. Feb.
5 —
FBI agents have arrested a former Washington Army National Guard officer
and his ex-wife on espionage charges alleging they attempted to sell national
security secrets.
Officials would not give details Wednesday. The indictment includes a
reference to a North Carolina lawyer who has represented the Ku Klux Klan and
militant anti-tax leaders.
Rafael Davila, 51, and Deborah Davila, 46, were arrested Tuesday and
ordered held without bail.
Representatives of the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., the U.S.
attorney's office in Spokane and the FBI refused to elaborate on the
charges.
"Clearly we can't comment on those things for national security reasons,"
said Ray Lauer, an FBI spokesman in Seattle.
In court Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Earl Hicks had said the "case
involves the sale of `top secret' and `secret' documents involved with the
defense of the United States."
Col. Rick Patterson of the Washington Army National Guard said Davila
joined the guard in 1990 and switched in 1997 from infantry to military
intelligence, where he could have had access to classified information. Davila
left honorably in January 1999.
Patterson said guard officials do not know what the Davila case
involves.
The indictment alleges the defendants had unauthorized possession of
sensitive documents during 1999.
It also says Deborah Davila lied to federal agents when she said she did
not recognize the name of Kirk Lyons, an attorney who has represented leaders
of the Klan and the anti-tax Posse Comitatus at trials, and was certain she
had never met him.
The indictment does not say what connection, if any, Lyons has with the
case.
Lyons, of Black Mountain, N.C., said Wednesday he did not know Rafael
Davila, barely knew Deborah Davila and had no connection to any espionage.
"That's the most hilarious, funny, ridiculous thing I've heard in my life,"
Lyons said. "It sounds like flaky people squealing to the government for
money."
Lyons said he knew Deborah Davila from Scottish dance events a decade ago
in the Spokane area. He said she also attended his wedding, which was
performed by Aryan Nations founder Richard Butler at the hate group's former
compound near Hayden, Idaho.
He said Deborah Davila would be an unlikely spy.
"Deborah is a nice girl, but she doesn't have the brains to be a spy,"
Lyons said.
Davila was arrested at his parents' home in Ontario, Ore., authorities
said. His former wife, a special education teacher, was arrested at her home
in College Place, near Walla Walla. Both face up to life in prison if
convicted.
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