Accused Cuban Spies Ordered to Jail

June 10, 2009— -- A federal judge on Wednesday ordered a Washington, D.C., couple accused of spying for Cuba to remain in jail until their trial.

A somber-looking Kendall and Gwendolyn Myers listened as government prosecutors accused them of being serious flight risk with little disregard for the United States at their detention hearing this morning in Washington's district court.

The couple, who appeared dressed in dark blue prison jumpsuits, could face up to 35 years in prison if convicted on the charges against them for conspiracy to act as foreign agents and wire fraud.

Lead prosecutor Michael Harvey said the couple represented "a serious flight risk" with the means to leave the United States escaping either via the Cuban Interest Section here in Washington or through other elaborate measures.

Prosecutors disclosed today that a calendar entry they had indicated the couple was planning a trip to the Carribeanthis fall aboard their 37-foot sailboat but there was no return date. During conversations with an undercover FBI agent in April, the couple had allegedly indicated they could indeed one day sail to Cuba aboard their boat.

The prosecution said the couple had admitted in their talks with the undercover FBI agent that they had received numerous medals in Cuba for their alleged spying from the Cuban Intelligence Service. Harvey also said the government's investigation into their alleged spying is ongoing.

The Justice Department's counterespionage section has not ruled out charging the couple with espionage as FBI agents and the prosecutors continue to sift through Kendall Myers computer back up files at the State Department. "We may bring additional charges," Harvey told Federal Magistrate John Facciola.

Myers is charged in the indictment and criminal complaint with allegedly viewing over 200 sensitive and highly classified documents between August 2006 and October 2007 on one computer system in State's Bureau of Intelligence & Research where Myers worked as an analyst.

Myers defense attorney Thomas Green sought to have the couple released for pre-trial motions and confined to their Washington home with electronic monitoring and a restriction of Kendall Myers' estimated $500,000 in assets. Green said the defense would try yo dismiss the charge of wire fraud from the indictment and said the Justice Department's case was "somewhat embellished."

Green said the couple's sailboat could be secured to ensure they were not to sail away on the high seas, making a run for Cuba, and said that they would have no incentive to leave since they have four children.

The prosecutors said that if they were allowed to escape they would be "greeted as heroes" in Cuba, citing a recent writing allegedly penned by Fidel Castroin Cuban papers that the Myers', "in my opinion, they deserve every honor in this world."

One of their children, estimated to be about 45 years old, was in the court to have the couple sign some legal papers. It is not known what the documents were.

At the hearing Kendal Myers sat at the defense table with his hands folded at times while his wife sat at full attention in her chair, the couple briefly looked at each other only speaking a few words to each other.

Magistrate Facciola ruled today that the couple must remain in detention while they await trial. The Magistrate in his order noted, "The defendants' hostility to the United States and their admiration for Cuba is well documented. It is hard to imagine, with so much at stake, that they would feel any compunction to fleeing prosecution in a country to which they seem to feel such little loyalty."

A status conference has been set on the case for next week before Judge Reggie Walton on June 17 at 10:30 a.m.