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Jury acquits plague researcher of main charges

Emergency Management Alert, December 10, 2003

A jury cleared a Texas Tech University professor with the most serious charges he faced after causing a bioterrorism scare, the Associated Press reports.

The jury convicted Thomas Butler, 62, of 47 charges, but most stemmed from a separate investigation. He was acquitted of 22 charges accusing him of smuggling and illegally transporting plague samples, as well as lying to federal agents. The charges stemmed from Butler's report to police January 14 that 30 vials of the potentially deadly plague bacteria were missing from his lab.

In a written statement issued later, Butler said he accidentally destroyed the samples, but during his trial he testified that he had no clear memory of destroying the vials. They could have been destroyed while he was cleaning up after an accident in January, he added.

Butler was found guilty of theft, embezzlement, fraud, and mail and wire fraud pertaining to shadow contracts prosecutors claimed he had illegally negotiated with pharmaceutical companies with which he also had clinical studies contracts. The jury acquitted him of 10 similar charges.

Butler faces up to 240 years in prison on the convictions, but the punishment will be far less under federal sentencing guidelines. He also faces fines of up to $11.7 million. No sentencing date was set.

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