CIA INVOKES SECURITY IN FELON'S TERM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90M01243R001000290022-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 30, 2013
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: December 1, 1989
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/09/30: CIA-RDP90M01243R001000290022-6
Office of Current Production and Analytic Support
CIA Operations Center
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Washington Post
Page D 1
By Patricia Davis
Washington Post Staff Writer
A longtime CIA employee who
molested two children is serving his
20-year sentence in the Fairfax
County jail because agency officials,
citing national security, requested
that he not be sent to the state pris-
on system.
Fairfax Commonwealth's Attor-
ney Robert F. Hc-,, sharply
criticized the unusaa: ? :]ment
yesterday and said he will ask the
state to send Gerald E. Zapoli, 46,
to prison. "It's kind of fascinating
that this child molester is getting
very different treatment than what
we'd call your average child molest-
er,"Horan said.
Zapoli, a communications special-
ist who had been stationed in nu-
merous countries, was sentenced to
state prison in June 1988 after he
was convicted of four counts of ag-
gravated sexual battery.
Shortly afterward, the CIA re-
quested that Zapoli, who lived in
Springfield, remain in the county
jail, according to Fairfax Sheriff M.
Wayne Huggins.
CIA spokesman James Zirkle con-
firmed the agency's request, saying
that the agency wanted Zapoli to
serve his sentence in a jail with
"less hardened people" because of
concern that inmates in a prison
were more likely to try to coerce
classified information from him.
Horan, when told of the CIA's
'explanation, questioned the agen-
cy's- reasoning. "That's wild that
ome other prisoner would want
classified information. I mean, half
of our robbers and murderers can't
even spell 'classified information.'"
Unlike prisons, local jails gener-
ally hold inmates who are sentenced
short terms or are awaiting court
teArings. Because of prison crowd-
? ing; - some inmates who normally
.4woold be sent to the state system
?areAept in the county jail, but it is
CIA Invokes
Security in
Felon's Term
Molester Sent to Jail
Rather Than Prison
extremely unusual for a 20-year
prison sentence to be served in a
jail, officials said.
Horan, the county's chief pros-
ecutor, said he learned only several
weeks ago that Zapoli was not in
prison, when a state employee in-
formed him that Zapoli was seeking
a pardon from Gov. Gerald L.
Baliles. A spokeswoman for Baliles
said Zapoli's pardon request is
awaiting review by the state parole
board.
Horan, who opposes a pardon,
De-
partment of Corrections to find out
said he contacted the Virginia why Zapoli, who was sentenced by
Circuit Judge J. Howe Brown, was
still in the county jail. Horan said he
has yet to receive an official expla-
nation.
"I am really disturbed that all this
has been done in the back room,"
said Horan, who said he was never
formally notified of the CIA's re-
quest. "We go to great pains to have
public trials and public disposition of
cases, and the Supreme Court has
reminded us many times that
you've got to do these things out in
the ilublic view, and rightly so."
Zapoli's defense attorney, Robert
C. Watson, did not return a report-
er's phone calls. Zapoli declined to
be interviewed at the county }ail.
Zirkle, the CIA spokesman, said
the agency was not trying to skirt
the court system, but could not
make its request until Zapoli was
convicted. Zirkle said it is routine
for the agency to protect classified i
information but not to intervene n
-such a way. "We don't have very
-many people who get 20-year pns-
-on terms," he said.
1 December 1989
Item 1
According to Fairfax Circuit
Court records, Zapoli was employed
-by the CIA for nearly 20 years. In
_one document, he was described by
a -CIA security officer as an "out-
standing employee." The records
..stated at the time that there was
"still some confusion" over whether
he would continue to qualify for a
; -government pension.
'? Zirkle said Zapoli no longer
' works for the CIA. He declined to
i say whether Zapoli was fired or al-
lowed to retire with a pension, say-
ing that is confidential personnel
information. ,
After Zapoli was sentenced, Hug-
gins, who as sheriff oversees the
county jail, said he was contacted by
the CIA through Zapoli's lawyer.
The sheriff said he agreed to keep ;
Zapoli, if the Department of Cor-
rections approved, after the CIA
relayed the fact that "national se-
curity issues were at stake," Hug-
gins said.
Huggins said no special security
measures have been taken on
1 Zapoli's behalf at the county jail in
Fairfax City. Because of the seri-
ousness of the charges against
Zapoli, the sheriff said Zapoli is held
on the maximum-security floor in a
cellblock with as many as 15 other
inmates, including drug dealers and
I robbers.
1 "There might even be a murder-
er or two in there," Huggins said.
; Zapoli was arrested after a rel-
ative called Fairfax police and told
them that a young boy had been
molested by Gerald Zapoli in 1984
and 1985, Horan said. She offered
to fly to Virginia, and last January
she met police investigator William
Whildin at Dulles International Air-
port, he said.
The investigation revealed that
Zapoli had fondled a second boy two
times in 1986, Horan said.
In a hearing before Judge Brown,
Zapoli entered four Afford pleas,
which are not admissions of guilt
but rather an acknowledgment that
the prosecution has sufficient ev-
idence for conviction. The judge
later denied a motion by Zapoli's
attorney to reconsider the sen-
tence.
Horan said it is unfair for family
members of the victims to be told
Zapoli is going to prison when he is
not. Some relatives said they have
kept track of his whereabouts and
are bitter.
"It's pretty poor that the CIA
would have any part in protecting a
person who commits crimes against
the children in our country," said
I the relative, whose name is being
withheld to avoid identifying her
child. "I really don't care what kind
of information he's got, I've got a
[child] who's suffering."
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/09/30: CIA-RDP90M01243R001000290022-6