LOS ANGELES -- The week before an FBI agent was arrested for espionage, his alleged Russian accomplice took him shopping for a trench coat and European shoes for their planned trip to Warsaw, where he was to pass intelligence documents to the Soviets, witnesses said Friday.
Sales clerks from a shoe store and clothing shop testified that Richard Miller and Svetlana Ogorodnikova bought a $40 pair of burgundy Italian shoes and put a hold on a $675 Burberry trench coat during a shopping spree Sept. 26, 1984.
Mark White, the sales clerk who helped the portly Miller at the At Ease shop in trendy Westwood Village, fingered the size 50-Long khaki coat as he recalled the couple. He said Ogorodnikova -- whom he described as having a 'hollowed out, hard face' -- told him she would pick it up two days later, but she never arrived.
FBI agents retrieved the coat Oct. 3, 1984, the day after Miller became the only FBI agent ever chargedwith espionage.
The testimony, which wrapped up the third week of Miller's espionage trial in federal court, followed an account of how Ogorodnikova arranged for plane tickets for herself and Miller to fly to Warsaw on Oct. 9, 1984.
Agent Michael di Pretoro, who eavesdropped on Ogorodnikova's wiretapped phone, said he listened on Sept. 25, 1984, as she reserved two seats to Vienna for Oct. 9, 1984.
Prosecutors claim Miller and the Soviet woman planned to travel from Vienna to Warsaw for a meeting with KGB officials.
Less than three hours after Ogorodnikova ended her conversation with the travel agent, she received a phone call from Soviet Vice Consul Aleksandr Grishin to affirm that the travel plans were set, di Pretoro said.
Another agent testified he saw Grishin enter a phone booth in the TWA terminal at San Francisco International Airport at 7:29 p.m. that night and make a phone call.
Earlier testimony revealed that Grishin, who allegedly coordinated Ogorodnikova's attempted recruitment of Miller but was not indicted because of diplomatic immunity, called Ogorodnikova on three Tuesdays in September 1984, always between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Prosecutors claim the calls were part of a conspiracy that lured Miller into turning over classified documents for a promised $65,000 in cash and gold. Miller, 48, admits he and the woman were lovers, but denies he was a spy. He claims he was trying to save his faltering career by using her to infiltrate the KGB.
Svetlana Ogorodnikova and her husband, Nikolai, pleaded guilty to conspiracy June 25 and are serving prison terms.
Di Pretoro, who is fluent in Russian, has testified that Grishin and Ogorodnikova used a 'plain language code' to make the travel plans over the telephone on Sept. 11 and Sept. 18. He said references to 'acquaintances' meant the KGB officials they would meet and the 'vacation' meant the trip.
The third conversation, on Sept. 25, was held in the same code and appeared to be a final followup for the trip to Warsaw, he said. In a translated tape recording of the call played for jurors, Grishin told Ogorodnikova, 'Your acquaintances will be waiting for you on the 10th to arrange everything for your vacation.'
'He's saying that representatives of the Soviet Union will be waiting for her,' di Pretoro said.
Grishin tells Ogorodnikova she should be able to get 'a good rest' on her 'vacation,' and adds, 'and your acquaintance, too,' which di Pretoro said was a reference to Miller.
'He adds a key ingredient to this by adding, 'And your acquaintance, too,'' di Pretoro said, 'That's a very necessary part of this plan.'
