Waltzing In

Unfortunately for the people entrusted with guarding the White House, the Marine Corps Orchestra did not march through the East Wing gate. Its members simply ambled in on Sunday, Jan. 20, two hours before they were scheduled to serenade President Reagan at his private Inauguration ceremony upstairs. If only they had arrived in hup-two-three-four formation, Presidential Spokesman Larry Speakes suggested last week, guards might have spotted the stray tourist tagging along with the Marines. "Had he been out of step," Speakes said with a smile, "they would have caught him earlier."

Instead, Robert Latta, a vacationer from Denver, followed the 33 musicians into the White House, wandered up to the second floor and then poked around for more than ten minutes before the Secret Service belatedly grabbed him near the Blue Room. "It was an adventure for me," says Latta. "I just wanted to see how far I could get." Latta's breezy breach of security mortified the White House. Says Speakes: "The Secret Service is taking a hard look at this matter."

When agents finally did discover Latta, they brought in dogs to search for possible explosives and interrogated the intruder outside. "They wanted to know everything about me," Latta recalls. "Did I have anything against Reagan? What are my politics? Had I ever been in a psychiatric institution? Had I ever been in jail?"

Then he was turned over to Washington police, charged with unlawful entry and locked up. During the five days it took him to arrange $1,000 bail, a courtappointed psychiatrist interviewed him and learned that Latta had voluntarily spent some time in a mental hospital last year. In addition, the psychiatrist reported, Latta "hears voices saying, 'You blew it.' "

Although Latta has a master's degree in mechanical engineering, he works as a meter reader for the Denver water department. Among his other claims to fame, Latta holds the Denver meter-reading record: 600 in a single day. Says his supervisor: "He is a phenomenon of accuracy and speed."

Whether pixilated or merely adventurous, Latta, who turns 46 this week, is hardly regretful about his unguided White House tour. Although he admits it was "a mistake," he notes that "it was the high point of being in Washington." If convicted of unlawful entry, Latta could be sentenced to six months in jail. But because the charge is only a misdemeanor, Washington prosecutors would be powerless to extradite him from Colorado if he did not return voluntarily.