Former Nacogdoches woman accused of conspiring against U.S. ordered to remain detained

HONOLULU (KTRE) - In a hearing in which she would not confirm her proper identity, a federal judge has ordered a former Nacogdoches woman accused of conspiring with her husband against the U.S. remain detained until trial.

Gwynn Darle Morrison appeared virtually in Judge Rom Trader’s courtroom in Honolulu Tuesday morning. The hearing kicked off with Morrison giving an ambiguous response on her name.

“They are calling me Gwynn Darle Morrison,” she said.

Morrison, also knows as Julie Lyn Montague, and her husband, Walter Glenn Primrose, were arrested in an FBI raid in late July. Both were charged with identity theft, lying on their passport applications, and conspiracy to commit crimes against the United States.

The couple has lived quietly in Hawaii for years, but were formerly of East Texas. According to the probable cause affidavit, Primrose was born in Shelby County. He and Morrison both attended SFA in the late 1970s. They married in Nacogdoches in 1980 and purchased a home together in 1981.

Pictures included in the court records show Primrose and Morrison in uniforms that the government said belonged to the KGB, the former Soviet Union spy agency. Government records said the couple assumed the identities of dead babies from Texas in the 1980s, then used those identities to obtain Social Security cards, passports and driver’s licenses.

In court Tuesday, Morrison entered a plea of not guilty. Her attorney, Megan Kau, argued she had no discovery to review and she could not address any allegations which could be used to argue Morrison’s detention.

Kau argued a photo of Morrison wearing a KGB jacket is not enough evidence to hold her. Kau said “anyone can tell” the photo was taken in someone else’s home and there is a T-shirt under the jacket.

Trader determined at the end that with three decades of allegations of using false names and who Morrison really is, that Morrison be detained.

A trial date for Morrison and her husband is set for Sept. 26.