April 10, 2003

"Texas Professor Indicted on Charges Stemming From Plague Bacteria Scare"

Remember the Texas Plague Scare of 1-ought-3? The professor's been indicted:

A professor was indicted Thursday on federal charges accusing him of smuggling plague bacteria and lying when he said vials of the dangerous germ had disappeared from a Texas Tech University lab last January.
Thomas C. Butler, 61, triggered a terrorism-alert plan when he said 30 vials of the bacteria were missing. The FBI rushed dozens of agents to this West Texas city.

The professor later told the FBI he made a "misjudgment" by telling school authorities the vials were missing when he had actually destroyed them, according to court document...

Butler's attorney, Floyd Holder, said his client will plead innocent...

The indictment also alleges Butler brought plague bacteria samples on a plane from Tanzania to Lubbock in April 2002 and did not fill out paperwork disclosing the samples.

He was charged with improperly driving samples to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention facility in Fort Collins, Colo., shipping 30 vials to Tanzania via FedEx and sending others aboard an American Airlines flight to a U.S. Army research center in Fort Detrick, Md...

The grand jury also charged Butler with filing a false income-tax return for 2001.

Sounds like a real strong and worthy case to me.

Posted to Miscellania at April 10, 2003 01:54 PM

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