New York:
They have been described as scheming secret agents living in the shadows of the suburbs, but they looked no more sinister than bored parents in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Thursday, slumped, arms crossed, as if enduring another long PTA meeting.
Husbands and wives shared the defense table, two mothers and two fathers, as the sensational charges were fleshed out even as the more mundane sides of their lives were explored.
Kindergarten play dates versus the tap-tap-tap of coded radio transmissions. Housework versus the "brush pass" exchange of parcels. They were described as having concealed their missions from even their closest observers.
"There is no inkling at all," said Assistant United States Attorney Michael Farbiarz, "that their children, who they live with, have any idea that their parents are Russian agents."
In the end, in court, the side of their lives described as cloaked in secrecy and deception mostly won out over parenthood, with two defendants denied bail. Another was allowed to serve a kind of house arrest under conditions yet to be met.
She is the only one that the government concedes lived under her own name: Vicky Peláez. Ms Peláez is a veteran columnist for El Diario La Prensa, a newspaper in New York. Her husband, known as Juan José Lázaro Sr, postponed his request for bail.
Mr. Lázaro, a former professor at Baruch College who has a 17-year-old son with Ms. Peláez, told officials that although he "loved his son, he would not violate his loyalty to the 'Service' even for his son," prosecutors said.
Mr Lázaro made the comment in a long and damaging statement after his arrest on Sunday, prosecutors revealed, in which he admitted his ties to the "Service," a reference to the Russian SVR, the successor to the KGB, the Soviet-era spy agency.
Of the second couple, known as Richard and Cynthia Murphy of Montclair, NJ, the judge said he was not confident that they would not flee.
"In order to have confidence in somebody's appearance, you have to know who the person is," the magistrate judge, Ronald L Ellis, said in denying them bail. "The court came to the conclusion that it just doesn't know who these individuals are."
In Boston, another husband-and-wife team - among 11 suspected "illegals," or "deep cover" Russian agents, in the case - appeared for a hearing that was quickly postponed two weeks. But their true identities were an issue there, too, however superficially.
When asked by a magistrate judge how they would like to be addressed, a lawyer for one stuck to what prosecutors said was an alias, Donald Heathfield. His wife, known as Tracey Lee Ann Foley, however, preferred a new name: "Defendant No 5."
And so it went on Thursday, as nine of the defendants showed up in federal courts in New York, Boston and Alexandria, Va. The detention hearings in Boston and Virginia were more style than substance, postponed as lawyers asked for more time to prepare their arguments for bail.
In New York, prosecutors offered details of Mr. Lázaro's double life. Writing to Judge Ellis, they said Mr. Lázaro, after waiving his Miranda rights, had admitted that Lázaro was not his true name, and that the Yonkers house where he and Ms Peláez live was paid for by the "Service."
He also "refused to provide his true name," prosecutors added.
They also revealed a 2009 message, written in broken and misspelled English, that they said the SVR had sent to the Murphys.
"The only goal and task of our service and of all of us is security of our country," the message said. "All our activities are subjected to this goal.
"Only for reaching this goal you were dispatched to US, settled down there, gained legal status and were expected to start striking up usefull acquaintances, broadening circle of your well placed connections, gaining information and eventually recruiting sources."
In the back row of the heavily guarded courtroom appeared to be family members and supporters of some defendants. And defense lawyers argued that their clients were rooted in their communities, had jobs and had no incentive to flee.
But Mr Farbiarz, the prosecutor, used that very claim against them. The family situations and professional and community connections - typically considerations in bail hearings - were not relevant, he said, because they were fraudulent and "riddled with deception."
"The government's view is those things don't count as they would in a normal case," Mr Farbiarz said.
But defense lawyers criticized what they suggested was a weakness in the unfolding case, that their clients had sent nothing noteworthy in what the criminal complaint says were coded messages to their Russian handlers. None of the defendants are charged with espionage.
"Innocuous information," as the lawyer, John M Rodriguez, for Ms Peláez put it. "I view the charges against my client as the equivalent of a tempest in a teapot," Mr. Rodriguez said.
Winston Lee, a lawyer for Ms Murphy, told the judge, "The government was waiting for 10 years, waiting for something to come up so that they could charge somebody with something, and it never happened." He said no evidence would have surfaced over another 10 years. "It was just not there," he said.
All 11 defendants have been charged with conspiring to act as unregistered agents of a foreign government. Nine of them have also been charged with conspiring to commit money laundering.
Seemingly working against the defendants was the fact that a co-defendant, Christopher R. Metsos, who was taken into custody in Cyprus this week, fled after being released on bail. Judge Ellis, though, indicated that would not bear on his decision.
The judge said Ms Peláez could be released on a $250,000 personal recognizance bond, and must wear an electronic ankle bracelet and remain in home incarceration. In contrast to the other defendants, he said, she apparently was not a trained agent and had not used any false names.
"She has in fact an identity which goes beyond the facts in this case," he said.
Mr Farbiarz said his office would consider appealing.
On Monday, the judge denied bail for another defendant, Anna Chapman, on the ground that she might flee.
Mr Farbiarz noted that the defendants would not have to leave the country to escape, or even the island of Manhattan. He cited the New York offices of the Russian Consulate and Russian Mission to the United Nations. "Getting uptown is not that hard," he said.