Anthrax Case Accusations Against 2 Men Dropped

Federal charges were dropped Monday against the two men who triggered a short-lived anthrax scare last week, but one of them faces more trouble at home in Ohio over new charges that he violated his probation in an earlier case because of his continuing fascination with exotic bacteria.

Larry J. Harris, 46, of Lancaster, Ohio, remained in federal custody awaiting a bail hearing today on probation violation allegations stemming from a 1995 case in which he illegally obtained bubonic plague bacteria by mail. Federal prosecutors in Ohio said Monday that Harris faces five years in prison if it is determined that he violated his probation by threatening to unleash anthrax bacteria on the public.

William J. Leavitt Jr., 47, of Logandale, Nev., was released from custody on his own recognizance Saturday after authorities determined that the material seized last week was a harmless anthrax-based veterinary vaccine. All the charges against both men in the anthrax case were dismissed at a court hearing late Monday afternoon.

The authorities “had no case. We knew they didn’t, and when [the suspected anthrax] came back as a vaccine, everyone knew it,” said Lamond Mills, a defense attorney for Leavitt. “They had to dismiss it.”

Leavitt and Harris were arrested Wednesday outside Las Vegas after the FBI received information that they were testing vials of “military-grade anthrax” and planned to use it as a weapon--perhaps in Las Vegas.

The allegations had attracted intense interest from the FBI partly because of Harris’ history: A suspected white supremacist, he had spoken out frequently on germ warfare.

In April, Harris was sentenced in federal court in Ohio to 18 months probation for wire fraud in obtaining samples of bubonic plague bacteria. He was found to have lied about his credentials in scheming to get a Maryland laboratory to mail him vials of the bacteria, a case that prompted Congress to tighten the statutes regulating biological terrorism laws.

Probation officials in Ohio said Harris appears to have violated his pledge not to conduct any experiments or obtain “any infectious diseases, bacteria or germs, except at approved laboratories in conjunction with verified employment.”

Harris also jeopardized his probation by allegedly boasting that he had enough anthrax to “wipe out the city” of Las Vegas and by warning one interviewer last year that his friends would strike against the government with biochemical weapons if provoked, officials said.

Claims he has made of a connection to the Central Intelligence Agency also could come back to haunt him. His probation agreement ordered him not to “misrepresent his credentials”--in particular his claim that he had a “long involvement” with the CIA. Yet he made that same claim just last week during an interview with a Las Vegas television station, probation officials said.

Michael Kennedy, a federal public defender representing Harris, said the microbiologist was in Las Vegas to do legitimate research in conjunction with his long-held passion for defending against germ warfare. As for whether that would violate his probation, he said: “We’ll have to get out the exact words of the contract and see how individuals interpret them.”

The preliminary hearing today is to determine whether there is enough evidence to send Harris back to Ohio to face charges of probation violation and whether he should be freed on bail in the meantime, officials said.

Harris was “elated” by the dismissal of the Las Vegas charges, Kennedy said.

Kennedy had no quarrel with the FBI’s action last week. “If the FBI had what they thought they had, they had to act quickly. I’d be the last person to say any [criticism] should be cast upon them. They acted diligently.”

Leavitt, meanwhile, is turning down many offers to appear on national television to discuss the case, Mills said.

“It is done,” Leavitt said. “I want to get on with my life.”