Saga of Hawaii ‘Spy’ Couple Pictured in KGB Garb Gets Even Weirder in Court

A Hawaii lady prosecutors say lived underneath an assumed id for many years—and should have ties to Russian intelligence—doubled down on the alleged charade throughout a detention listening to together with her husband on Tuesday.

Requested by U.S. Justice of the Peace Choose Rom Dealer to state her identify, Gwynn Darle Morrison replied, “They’re calling me Gwynn Darle Morrison.”

In 1987, Morrison, 67, and husband Walter Glenn Primrose, additionally 67, used the start certificates of two lifeless Texas infants to start a years-long masquerade as “Bobby Edward Fort” and “Julie Lyn Montague,” based on a felony criticism first reported final week by The Day by day Beast. In 1988, the feds say the couple—who had already wed as Walter Primrose and Gwynn Morrison—remarried one another “underneath their respective assumed identities,” the feds say.

Megan Kau, Morrison’s lawyer, informed Dealer, “My shopper maintains that her identify is Julie Lyn Montague, and [says] that’s the one factor that she’s ever passed by.”

Later within the listening to, Dealer requested Primrose to additionally state his identify— however acquired a really completely different response.

“Walter Glenn Primrose,” he mentioned.

Assistant U.S. Legal professional Thomas Muehleck informed Dealer he was flummoxed by Morrison’s conduct.

“Your honor, it’s just a little unusual right here that the defendant maintains… she is Julie Lyn Montague,” Muehleck mentioned. “You understand, her sister was interviewed by the FBI and was proven an image of the Julie Lyn Montague Hawaii driver’s license with the defendant’s {photograph} on there, and mentioned, ‘That seems to be Gwynn, however the date of start is improper.’”

Morrison and Primrose, who’re detained in a federal lockup, appeared individually by cellphone, attributable to COVID protocols. Each entered not responsible pleas.

In 1994, Primrose joined the Coast Guard as Bobby Fort, who would have been 27 on the time. Primrose was truly 39 years-old—eight years over the cutoff age for brand new recruits.

Primrose was finally granted a secret-level safety clearance, and retired from the Coast Guard as an avionics technician in 2016 after a 20-year hitch. He then went on to work as a cleared protection contractor at Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Level close to Honolulu. His clearance was nonetheless lively when he and Morrison have been arrested on July 22, based on courtroom filings.

Morrison as soon as lived in Romania throughout the Soviet period, based on prosecutors, who haven’t but been capable of clarify what she was allegedly doing there. When federal brokers searched the pair’s dwelling in Oahu, they found paperwork written in code, maps of army bases, and an invisible ink equipment, the feds say. And when the couple have been briefly left alone, however didn’t know their dialog was being recorded, they allegedly referenced “issues per espionage.”

“Federal brokers have… seized pictures from the defendants’ residence that depict the defendants apparently some years in the past sporting what have been recognized as KGB uniforms,” prosecutors mentioned in a detention memo filed July 25. And in a courtroom look final week, prosecutors mentioned investigators had discovered from associates of Primrose and Morrison that the 2 “had a longstanding curiosity in espionage and expressed anti-government and anti-military sentiments.”

The 2 left their dwelling in Texas within the Nineteen Eighties “all of the sudden,” and informed household they have been coming into the witness safety program, based on assistant U.S. Legal professional Wayne Myers.

On Tuesday, Morrison’s lawyer, Megan Kau, known as the federal government’s proof “obscure,” and disputed that the photographs have been in any method incriminating.

Kau mentioned the “alleged {photograph}” of Morrison “sporting an alleged KGB uniform,” had been taken “a while in the past… in someone else’s dwelling.” Primrose was additionally seen in KGB garb, which Kau claimed was the identical outfit that Morrison was sporting.

“They’re sporting T-shirts,” Kau informed Dealer. “My shopper, a minimum of, appears to be like like she’s sporting a T-shirt beneath [the] jacket.”

Kau requested for Morrison’s launch, arguing that prosecutors haven’t offered sufficient materials through the invention course of for her to adequately debrief her shopper about her previous, together with any aliases she could have used.

However Muehleck pushed again, arguing to maintain Morrison and Primrose detained.

“We have now a state of affairs right here the place this defendant and her co-defendant, after all, have used false identities to deceive Social Safety, the Division of Protection, the Hawaii Division of Transportation, [and] the State Division’s Nationwide Passport Middle, for 30 years,” he mentioned. “And there’s no verification of who she says she is.”

Muehleck emphasised the thriller of the KGB uniform pictures, famous that Morrison has “traveled overseas,” and joined Primrose on unreported journeys to Canada whereas he was within the Coast Guard.

“It is a state of affairs the place it’s a basic case to detain for flight danger,” he argued.

To this, Dealer mentioned, “At this level, I can’t even actually say that I’ve confidence as to who Ms. Morrison, or Montague, actually, really is. It actually begs the query as as to if or not she will be trusted to adjust to any phrases and situations that the courtroom units.”

He ordered Morrison and Primrose each detained pending trial. Jury choice is ready to start Sept. 26.

The 2 are charged with conspiracy to commit an offense towards the US; making false statements on a passport utility; and aggravated id theft.