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Scientist Receives Two Years in Plague Scare Case
A plague expert who caused a bioterrorism scare last year in Texas was sentenced yesterday to two years in prison for charges not directly related to the original incident of missing plague vials, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Feb. 11). In addition to the prison term, Thomas Butler was fined $15,000 and ordered to pay $38,675 in restitution to Texas Tech University. In December, a federal jury found the researcher guilty of 47 of 69 charges. Forty-four of the convictions involved contract disputes with the Lubbock university; the scientist was found guilty of diverting payments from drug companies for clinical trials to his bank account, thereby defrauding Texas Tech University. He was also found guilty of three counts related to a separate incident involving shipment of plague samples without the proper permit to his research associates in Tanzania. He labeled the package of dangerous bacteria merely “laboratory materials.” Jurors acquitted Butler of charges related to the plague scare, including accusations that he lied to FBI agents and school officials and smuggled plague samples into the United States from Tanzania. Butler was a researcher at Texas Tech when he reported 30 vials of plague bacteria missing in January 2003. The FBI immediately sent 60 agents to Lubbock in search of the vials. Butler later told the FBI he had mistakenly destroyed the vials and then declared them missing. Many prominent scientists, including several Nobel laureates, expressed concern about the case last year. They worried that Butler’s prosecution could dissuade other scientists from participating in bioterrorism research (see GSN, Oct. 23, 2003; Kenneth Chang, New York Times, March 11).
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