Trial set for professor accused of causing bioterror scare
Emergency Management Alert, November 4, 2003
Jury selection was to begin November 3 in the trial of a Texas Tech University professor accused of causing a bioterrorism scare involving missing vials of plague bacteria, the Associated Press reports.
Thomas C. Butler faces 69 felony charges including lying to federal agents about 30 vials of plague bacteria he reported stolen from the lab. He has pleaded innocent and says FBI agents tricked him into confessing that he destroyed the vials. Butler said he cannot account for the vials.
If convicted, Butler faces life in prison and $17.1 million in fines.
The government also accuses Butler of smuggling plague samples from Africa and illegally transporting them within this country and overseas. Butler is free on bail and on paid leave from Texas Tech, where he is chief of the infectious diseases department of internal medicine. The university seeks to dismiss him.
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