May 18, 2001 07:50pm
Ex-Stripper: Hanssen Gave Her Gifts
Source: AP
by: Jennifer Hoyt
(WASHINGTON) -- A former stripper says accused spy Robert Hanssen gave her almost $80,000 in gifts, including a trip to Hong Kong and a Mercedes, during their yearlong friendship.
Priscilla Sue Galey, who met the veteran FBI (news - web sites) agent in 1990 at a strip club where she worked, said Hanssen never made sexual advances toward her.
Instead, Hanssen talked to her about being close to God and told her she needed to change her life, Galey said in an interview Friday with ABC's ''20/20.'' He even invited her to go to the Roman Catholic church in the Virginia suburbs he regularly attended with his wife and children.
``I made it as far as sitting there and watching them go in and I just sort of declined,'' she said.
Hanssen, who worked for the FBI for 25 years, was indicted on Wednesday on 21 espionage counts. The indictment accused Hanssen of giving U.S. secrets, including information about satellites and early warning systems, to the Soviet Union and later to Russia in return for $1.4 million.
If found guilty, he could be sentenced to death.
Besides the Mercedes, Galey says Hanssen gave her a sapphire and diamond necklace and $2,000 to fix a tooth. When she asked him to bring her a present from Hong Kong, Hanssen took her on the 21/2-week trip instead, she says, but they flew separately and stayed in different rooms.
``It was exciting,'' she said. ``It was the most beautiful time I ever had in my entire life.''
Galey says Hanssen was happily married and never tried to touch her or kiss her. He even rebuffed her sexual advance.
``He let me know very nicely, quickly before I embarrassed myself, that no there wouldn't be anything happening,'' she said.
``I really had nothing to think but great wonderful thoughts,'' she added. ``I thought the man was an angel.''
Galey, who now lives in Columbus, Ohio, says she has not talked to Hanssen in years. He refused to help her after she was arrested for selling drugs, and she went to jail for a year.
She says she was shocked by Hanssen's arrest. ``He seemed like the type of man who could do no wrong,'' she said.
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