Analyst willing to help in FBI probe

Thursday, June 21, 2001 | 11:07 a.m.

James J. Hill, the Las Vegas FBI security analyst charged with selling top-secret investigative information, wants to help the FBI look for other leaks at the local field office, his lawyer said Wednesday.

"We are going to cooperate with the government to get to the bottom of this," attorney Barry Levinson told reporters outside the federal courthouse after Hill was ordered to remain behind bars.

FBI spokesman Daron Borst this morning declined to respond to Levinson's offer.

"We are conducting a thorough investigation," Borst said. "It will uncover the scope of the illegal activity."

Levinson said there was no way Hill could have sold the massive amount of classified FBI documents as alleged in a complaint against his client.

"I don't buy the government's theory," Levinson said. "If we have to, we'll help them find the leaks."

Hill's wife, Patty, told the Sun her husband has not turned over any sensitive files.

"I know the man's character," she said. "I know he's a good man."

She also identified another FBI employee who may have leaked confidential information to former FBI agent Mike Levin, now a Las Vegas private investigator.

Levin, forced to resign from the FBI in 1997 because of alleged government credit card abuses, reportedly was arrested in New York June 14 on charges of stealing and selling classified FBI information.

He agreed to cooperate and told FBI agents that he obtained the information from Hill and paid Hill $25,000 for hundreds of confidential FBI records since November 1999.

Levin allegedly said he then sold that information to organized crime members and other criminal FBI targets.

The six-page complaint filed against Hill in New York identifies Levin only as a private investigator and a confidential informant.

Levin, who has been seen driving around town in a new Porsche, was reported to be back in Las Vegas. He could not be reached for comment today.

Attorney Steve Wolfson, who rents office space to Levin, said he has not seen the private investigator all week.

But Wolfson said FBI agents showed up Monday with a warrant to search Levin's office.

The agents, Wolfson said, told him that Levin had given his consent to conduct the search.

At a brief detention hearing Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Lawrence Leavitt ordered Hill to remain in custody and transported to New York to face theft and obstruction of justice charges.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Parella argued that Hill should remain behind bars while he fights the charges because he was a flight risk and a danger to the community.

Parella said Hill also was an obstruction of justice risk.

Hill, a 20-year Air Force veteran who has worked for the Las Vegas FBI office since 1991, had access to national security and electronic surveillance information, as well as confidential informants and witnesses data stored in the FBI's national computer system.

Levinson did not oppose the government's arguments at the hearing, which was packed with reporters, prosecutors and FBI agents.

The gray-haired Hill, wearing khaki jail garb, appeared calm as Leavitt explained that he could have another detention hearing in New York.

Levinson said afterward that he planned to file a motion asking for Hill to be released on bail.

Hill, who has been placed on administrative leave by the FBI, is shocked by the charges, Levinson said.

"He can't believe it," the lawyer said. "It's like surreal to him."

FBI and Justice Department officials, meanwhile, remained tight-lipped today about the ongoing internal and criminal investigations.

Agents are continuing to assess the damage caused by the theft of the confidential records, which referred to criminal cases and grand jury investigations.