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Texas professor indicted in plague bacteria hoax

Emergency Management Alert, April 15, 2003

A Texas Tech University professor was indicted April 10 on federal charges of smuggling plague bacteria and lying when he reported vials of the germ had disappeared from a university lab last January, the Associated Press reports.

Thomas C. Butler, 61, triggered a terrorism alert plan when he said 30 vials of the bacteria were missing. The FBI sent dozens of agents to Lubbock, TX, to investigate.

Butler later told the FBI he made a "misjudgment" by telling school authorities the vials were missing when he had actually destroyed them. The chief of the infectious diseases division at Texas Tech's medical school, Butler is on paid leave.

Butler plans to plead innocent to the charges.

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, CO, 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.

If convicted on all charges, Butler could face up to 74 years in prison and $3.6 million in fines.

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