Life Interrupted for Children of Accused Spies

(July 2) -- On the evening her parents were arrested, 11-year-old Katie Murphy stood outside and watched federal agents swarm her suburban New Jersey home.

From three houses away, a neighbor says he saw Katie, the older daughter of accused Russian spies Richard and Cynthia Murphy, standing on the lawn holding a balloon animal as her parents were taken away in handcuffs.

Alan Sokolow, the Murphys' neighbor, described the scene as tragic. "There she was with one of those balloon animals and -- to come home to that -- it's horrendous," he said.

Sokolow told AOL News today that Katie was dropped off by a friend's parent after what seemed to be a pool party, and arrived at her Montclair home just in time to see her mom and dad arrested on suspicion that the seemingly ordinary couple were actually Russian spies living under "deep cover" in the United States.

Half an hour later, Sokolow said, Katie and her little sister Lisa, 7, got back into the friend's car with backpacks and pillows in hand, and drove away.

In court Thursday, prosecutors painted portraits of the suspects as highly trained Russian agents who only posed as ordinary fathers and mothers, husbands and wives. But for the seven children of the accused, there was no double life; as far as they were concerned, the suspects were simply their parents.

Prosecutors, friends and neighbors say the children had no idea their parents were allegedly involved in a Russian spy ring.

"There is no inkling at all that their children, who they live with, have any idea that their parents are Russian agents," Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Farbiarz said, according to The New York Times.

Waldo Mariscal, the adult son of accused spies Vicky Pelaez and Juan Lazaro of New York, told reporters this week that the charges against his parents were "preposterous." He told The Wall Street Journal that the closest tie his mother has to Russia is a love of Tchaikovsky, the Russian composer.

If anything, it seems the children may have played an unwitting role in their parents' covers.

Sokolow, 67, said he and his wife had nothing to suspect from the Murphys when they moved into the neighborhood about two years ago with two "adorable," towheaded little girls.

"The girls were beautiful, and they seemed happy and they definitely enjoyed each other's company," he said. "You'd see them riding their bikes back and forth and playing with other kids."

Sokolow said the girls were "well dressed, clean and neat, and polite," but unmistakably children. "You got to give the parents credit for that," he said.

He said the suburbs may have provided good cover for the alleged spies.

"Typical suburbia," he said. "We didn't know their last name until the story broke on Monday. She definitely had an accent, but the kids were very sort of fair, light blond. ... My assumption was they were maybe Scandinavian."

In court Thursday, bail hearings for nine of the accused spies seemed to put an exclamation mark on the trauma the children may face.

ABC reports that Timothy Foley, 20, and Alex Foley, 16, waved to their shackled parents, alleged agents Donald Heathfield and Tracey Foley, as the couple appeared briefly in a Boston courtroom.

And in New York, prosecutors said Juan Lazaro had conceded that while he "loved his son, he would not violate his loyalty to the 'Service' even for his son."

The Murphy girls are with child protective services in New Jersey but will likely go to stay with friends of the family soon. Sokolow said he felt sorry for the girls.

"There's sadness for the kids, who seem completely innocent and absolutely lovely," he said. "You wonder how parents can get so caught up into that kind of life. Look at the damage they've done to the children."