By rickyjames, Section News Posted on Wed Nov 19, 2003 at 03:18:38 AM PST
In that underrated subgenre of film noir known as Southern Jail movies, there's always the scene where the potbellied authority figure drawls, "You in a heap o trouble, boy!" No doubt Texas scientist Thomas Butler has heard those words at some point in his not-so-excellent adventure after forgetting the First Law of Science ("Thou shalt always tell the Truth") and its First Corollary ("Especially to the Feds"). Now he faces 69 federal felony counts, carrying a maximum sentence of 469 years in prison and $17.1 million in fines. Even if he is convicted on just two or three counts of the thick indictment, he could spend a decade behind bars. His trial began this week.
So how has Dr. Butler gone from a widely respected disease researcher at Texas Tech to a potential 21st Century version of Cool Hand Luke? Just like in the movies, acts of defiance and rebellion against authority have had more than a little to do with his legal plight. In the course of his research, he has repeatedly brought samples of bubonic plague (yep, the same Black Death that killed millions of Europeans in the 1300s) back from Africa to his lab. So far, so good. Except that Dr. Butler carried the samples in ordinary test tubes. In his pockets. Aboard commercial jetliners. Numerous times. Without declaring them. In initial testimony at Dr. Butler's trial, Patricia Worsham, a plague researcher at the U.S. Army Research Institute for Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in Maryland, said she had exchanged e-mails with Butler about his samples. However, "I would have run screaming from the room [had she known about Butler's sample transport methods]," she said. "That is a type of violation of the law that I would not want to become involved with."
But the vials didn't break and millions of Europeans didn't die this time, so no harm, no foul, right? Well, that's where lies and the Feds come in...
After the 2001 anthrax attacks, Dr. Butler realized there would probably be a national inventory of hazardous biomaterials like bubonic plague samples. One problem - in his research he had routinely used and destroyed his samples without documenting his actions, so that there really WAS no tangible inventory of the stuff in his lab. Sloppy work habits for a lab receiving federal funding, perhaps, but not as bad as what came next.
Defense attorney Chuck Meadows admitted in opening trial statements that Butler was having problems with members of the Texas Tech Internal Review Board (IRB). "It is no secret that Dr. Butler, like most research scientists, did not get along with the IRB at Texas Tech," Meadows said. "He got into a cat fight with a lady named Dr. Pence ... they were like two kids in a sandbox fighting for toys."
Extending this analogy, Dr. Butler decided to bury his toys in the sandbox. In a Jan. 11 notebook entry, Butler mentions for the first time that samples of the deadly bacteria were unaccounted for. The next day, he was even more specific. "Rechecked missing tubes ... can't explain other than intentional removal. Suspect theft," Butler wrote. On Jan. 14, Butler told his boss that 30 vials were missing from the lab.
BAM. Next thing you know, the FBI is swarming all over Texas Tech, trying to figure out what dorm Al-Qaeda operatives were staying in when they swiped Dr. Butler's samples. Dr. Butler stuck to his story of sample theft before eventually signing an FBI confession (one he now says he was tricked into signing) stating that there was no theft and he had in fact destroyed the samples himself.
Bookmark this story with del.icio.us
Digg this story
Furl this item
Have you Reddit?