HONOLULU (AP) — A U.S. protection contractor and his spouse charged with fraudulently residing for many years beneath the stolen identities of two useless infants informed household they have been going into the witness safety program earlier than abruptly abandoning their home and leaving Texas about 40 years in the past, a federal prosecutor stated Thursday.

In some unspecified time in the future, Walter Glenn Primrose and Gwynn Darle Morrison reemerged with new names and different explanations for lives cloaked in thriller.

The couple informed folks they have been dodging authorized and monetary bother, Assistant U.S. Legal professional Wayne Myers stated. Primrose informed somebody he was a authorities agent who couldn’t be photographed.

Intriguing particulars that emerged throughout a bail listening to in a Honolulu courtroom have been sufficient to get Primrose detained with out bail, however supplied little readability why the couple shed their previous and whether or not the felony case towards them is extra critical than id theft.

Myers efficiently sought to have Primrose detained as a result of his “life has been a fraud for the final a number of a long time,” together with greater than 20 years within the U.S. Coast Guard the place he earned a secret-level safety clearance. After retiring in 2016, he used the key clearance for his protection job.

A search of the couple’s Hawaii dwelling turned up Polaroids of the couple carrying jackets that seem like genuine Russian KGB uniforms, Myers stated. An professional decided the snapshots have been taken within the 1980s.

The search additionally yielded an invisible ink equipment, paperwork with coded language and maps exhibiting navy bases, Myers stated.

When the couple have been left in a room collectively, they have been recorded saying “issues according to espionage,” Myers stated.

“We predict the defendant is clearly fairly adept at impersonating different folks, acquiring authorities ID paperwork, fraud, avoiding detection,” Myers stated. “He might — we’re not saying for certain — however he might have some troubling overseas connections. And if he does, he may have the ability to use these to enlist assist.”

Federal defender Craig Jerome stated the federal government solely supplied “hypothesis and innuendo” that the couple was concerned in one thing extra nefarious than “purely white-collar nonviolent offenses.”

“If it wasn’t for the hypothesis that the federal government’s injected into these proceedings with out offering any actual proof … he will surely be launched,” Jerome stated.

Morrison faces a bail listening to Tuesday.

Her lawyer stated the couple — no matter their names — had lived law-abiding lives. Legal professional Megan Kau informed The Related Press the couple posed for pictures within the purported KGB jacket for enjoyable.

“She desires everybody to know she’s not a spy,” Kau stated. “This has all been blown method out of proportion. It’s authorities overreaching.”

The couple, who have been arrested Friday at their Kapolei dwelling, are charged with conspiracy to commit an offense towards the U.S., false assertion in passport software and aggravated id theft. They withstand 17 years in jail if convicted of all fees.

Inside their home, investigators found correspondence through which an affiliate believed Primrose had joined the CIA or had turn into a terrorist, Myers stated.

After they left Texas within the early 1980s and claimed they have been protected witnesses, they handed over the keys to their Nacogdoches home and informed members of the family to take something they wished. The home was later foreclosed on.

In 1987, Primrose took on the id of Bobby Edward Fort, an toddler who died in 1967 in Burnet, Texas. Morrison took the id of Julie Lyn Montague, who died in 1968 on the similar hospital as Fort. Primrose and Morrison, each born in 1955, have been greater than a decade older than the start dates listed on their new IDs.

“The defendant and his spouse reportedly informed but different associates that they wanted to vary their names due to authorized and monetary causes,” Myers stated. “And that going ahead they are often contacted utilizing their new names, Fort and Montague.”

They remarried beneath their assumed names in 1988, in accordance with courtroom information.

Morrison used her actual identify to open a put up workplace field, the place she informed household to contact her. When her father died, her household couldn’t attain her and enlisted native regulation enforcement to trace her down.

“Even the defendant’s household can’t discover him when they should,” Myers stated.

Prosecutors feared Primrose would flee if freed. They famous in courtroom papers that he was an avionics electrical technician within the Coast Guard and was extremely expert to speak secretly if launched.

The decide stated he based mostly his detention order on the alleged fraud “over a number of events spanning an extended time frame.”

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Melley reported from Los Angeles.