I, spy.
A former CUNY professor rounded up in a US-based Russian spy ring boasted of his espionage work for Moscow and vowed he would not violate his loyalty to the Russian secret service — even for his son, federal prosecutors revealed yesterday.
The passionate leftist, who lived here under the fake name Juan Lazaro, also told investigators Sunday that his wife, El Diario columnist Vicky Pelaez, delivered letters to their spymasters for him — and that their Yonkers home “had been paid for by the ‘Service,’ ” a court filing disclosed.
Pelaez and Lazaro — who refuses to divulge his real name — yesterday appeared in Manhattan federal court for a bail hearing watched by their son, Juan José Lazaro Jr., 17, and Pelaez’s son, Waldo Mariscal, 38.
The filing indicated feds monitored Lazaro’s and Pelaez’s conversations by “microphones” in their Yonkers home “for years.”
After waiving his Miranda rights, Lazaro “made a lengthy statement” admitting he wasn’t born in Uruguay, as he had claimed, the filing said. “And that, although he [Lazaro] loved his son [Juan], he would not violate his loyalty to the ‘Service’ even for his son.”
The younger son declined to comment, but Mariscal called the case “a circus” and derided the “psychological pressure” placed on his stepdad.
Assistant US Attorney Michael Farbiarz called the complaint “the tip of the iceberg,” saying that the evidence is “very strong” and that there are unnamed co-conspirators. “There are a lot of Russian government officials in the United States who are actively participating . . . in this conspiracy,” he said.
The filing also revealed alleged spy couple Richard and Cynthia Murphy of Montclair, NJ, had a safe-deposit box containing $80,000.
The feds argued against bail, saying both couples and six other suspects busted earlier this week have US helpers waiting to aid their flight if they are released.
He said the defendants would have a “powerful, sophisticated network they can call upon in the United States”– raising the specter that they would flee, just as their alleged paymaster, Christopher Metsos, did Wednesday in Cyprus after making bail.
Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis denied bond to the Murphys and postponed a bail decision on Lazaro, but granted Pelaez release under house arrest and electronic monitoring if she posts $10,000 cash toward a $250,000 bond.
In federal court in Alexandria, Va., a detention hearing for alleged spies Patricia Mills, Michael Zottoli and Mikhail Semenko was postponed until today.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for a Cambridge, Mass., couple accused of spying for the same ring said the only thing his clients infiltrated are “neighborhoods, cocktail parties and the PTA.”
When Donald Heathfield and his wife, Tracey Lee Ann Foley, appeared in Boston federal court for a bail hearing, a judge granted a delay until July 16.
As they entered the court in handcuffs and leg shackles, the couple smiled at their sons, a teenager and a college student, who waved at their parents.