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US defense contractor and his wife who lived for decades using the stolen IDs of dead Texas babies are charged with identity theft but deny claims they are spies after photos of them in KGB uniforms are found
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
The couple face charges of aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit an offense against the US and false statement in an application for a passport after they were arrested Friday in Kapolei on the island of Oahu. Prosecutors are seeking to have the couple held without bail, which could indicate the case is about more than fraudulently obtaining drivers' licenses, passports and Defense Department credentials. Those documents helped Primrose get secret security clearance with the US Coast Guard and as a defense contractor and old photos show the couple wearing uniforms of the KGB, the former Russian spy agency, Assistant US Attorney Thomas Muehleck said in court papers. Faded Polaroids of each in uniform were included in the motion to have them held. A 'close associate' said Morrison lived in Romania while it was a Soviet bloc country, Muehleck said. Morrison's attorney said her client never lived in Romania and that she and Primrose tried the same jacket on as a joke and posed for photos in it. Prosecutors said there is a high risk the couple would flee if freed. They also suggested that Primrose, who was an avionics electrical technician in the Coast Guard, was highly skilled to communicate secretly if released. The couple is also believed to have other aliases, Muehleck said. Primrose and Morrison were born in 1955 and they attended high school together in Port Lavaca, Texas, and then went to Stephen F. Austin University, according to court records. They married in 1980. There is no indication in court papers why the couple in 1987 assumed the identities of deceased children who would have been more than a decade younger than them. But an affidavit filed by Special Agent Dennis Thomas of the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service noted that the couple lost their home in Nacogdoches, Texas, to foreclosure that year. They remarried under their assumed names in 1988, Thomas said. Court records don't provide any information about what happened from the time they assumed their new identities until 1994, when Primrose, then about 39, enlisted in the Coast Guard as Fort, who would have been about 27. Primrose and Morrison applied for and received multiple passports under their assumed names, according to court records. But in 1999 Primrose also applied for and was issued a passport under his legal name while also holding a passport in Fort's name. Primrose was in the service until 2016, when he began work for an unnamed defense contractor at the US Coast Guard Air station at Barbers Point. 'While he held that secret clearance with the US Coast Guard, defendant Primrose was required to report any foreign travel,' prosecutors wrote. 'Investigation has revealed that defendant Primrose did not report several trips to Canada while he did report other foreign travel.' Posted by: Skidmark 2022-07-29 |
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