Suspect Cleared in Anthrax Scare Held on Ohio Charges

Larry Wayne Harris, arrested last week in an anthrax scare, was ordered to remain in custody Tuesday and be returned to Columbus, Ohio, to face charges that he violated the terms of his probation in an earlier exotic bacteria case.

U.S. Magistrate Robert J. Johnston agreed with Harris’ defense attorney that the Ohio microbiologist is not a threat to the community. But he said Harris should not be released from jail because of uncertainty as to whether he would show up for court in Columbus to face the probation violation charges.

Harris and a local medical researcher, William J. Leavitt Jr., were arrested in nearby Henderson last Wednesday night by the FBI on suspicion of possessing lethal anthrax bacteria. Tests later showed that the material was a harmless form of anthrax used as a veterinary vaccine.

Also, FBI agents searching Harris’ home in Ohio found various biological materials, but again, none was determined to be dangerous.

On Monday, charges against both men were dropped at a federal court hearing. Leavitt had been released from jail two days earlier.

But federal authorities in Ohio charged Harris, 46, on Monday with violating several terms of his 1997 probation, in a case in which he fraudulently obtained bubonic plague toxins by mail.

Among the alleged violations in Monday’s complaint were that Harris continued to conduct experiments with bacteria or germs without the permission of his probation officer, and that he recently claimed affiliation with the CIA, despite being ordered not to misrepresent his credentials.

Additionally, while Harris told his probation officer that he was coming to Las Vegas, he changed hotels without telling Ohio authorities, authorities said.

In court Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Atty. L.J. O’Neale argued that Harris was a danger to the community just by threatening to possess lethal, military-grade anthrax. The boasting, O’Neale said, was akin to claiming to have a bomb aboard an airplane.

But Harris’ public defender, Michael Kennedy, argued that in the FBI’s complaint against Leavitt and Harris, the alleged comments about possessing anthrax were attributed to Leavitt, not Harris.

“Yet, Mr. Leavitt has been released,” Kennedy argued to the magistrate.

Johnston agreed that there was no evidence showing that Harris was a risk to the community, but said that based on Harris’ credibility, he could pose a flight risk, and ordered that he still be held in custody.

The magistrate then deferred to authorities in Ohio, who asked that Harris be returned to face the probation violation charges. The preliminary hearing on those charges will be held within 10 days, officials said. If he is found to have violated his probation, Harris could face five years in prison.

Harris came to Las Vegas last week as a consultant to Leavitt, a medical researcher. Leavitt said he was considering buying a device that, its inventor said, could kill certain bacteria. The man who promoted the technology, Ronald G. Rockwell, was the one who turned the two men in to the FBI because, he said, the pair boasted that they had military-grade anthrax.