Dec. 1, 2003, 10:27PM
Researcher guilty of 47 charges
Innocent of lying to FBI; faces jail, fines after starting bioterrorism scare
Associated Press
LUBBOCK -- A jury on Monday found a world-renowned plague researcher guilty of 47 of the 69 charges he faced after reporting plague samples stolen from his Texas Tech University lab.
Dr. Thomas Butler, 62, appeared stunned as the verdicts were read after two days of deliberations. He closed his eyes, shook his head and fought back tears. After the jury left the courtroom, Butler's wife and son hugged him for several seconds.
The charges stemmed from an investigation following his report to police Jan. 14 that 30 vials of the potentially deadly plague bacteria were missing from his Texas Tech lab.
The report sparked a bioterrorism scare in this West Texas city in January, and President Bush was informed of the incident.
In a statement written later, Butler said he accidentally destroyed the samples. However, during his trial he testified that he had no clear memory of destroying the vials but that they could have been destroyed during his cleanup of an accident he had Jan. 3 or 4.
The jury of nine men and three women found Butler guilty of making a false statement on a FedEx package that contained plague samples he sent to Tanzania and their unauthorized export to the African country. Butler had marked the package "laboratory materials."
The jury also found Butler guilty on all but 10 of the 54 theft, embezzlement, fraud and mail and wire fraud charges pertaining to shadow contracts prosecutors claimed he had illegally negotiated with pharmaceutical companies with which he also had clinical studies contracts.
He was acquitted on charges of lying to the FBI about his report of missing vials of plague-causing bacteria and making a false statement to a Texas Tech safety officer about Butler possessing plague samples.
Jurors found him innocent of smuggling plague samples into the United States in April 2002 and illegally transporting them to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention facility in Fort Collins, Colo., in June 2002 and a U.S. Army medical research facility in Fort Detrick, Md., in October 2002.
Butler also was acquitted on three of four counts of transporting smuggled goods -- the plague samples.
No sentencing date was set.
The charges carry a potential prison term of 469 years, though he faces a shorter term under federal guidelines. He also faces millions of dollars in fines.