Calabasas Man Convicted in Anthrax Threat

A Calabasas accountant who phoned in an anthrax threat to avoid a Bankruptcy Court hearing was convicted by a federal judge Tuesday for threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction.

Harvey Craig Spelkin, 53, had waived his right to a jury trial before U.S. District Court Judge George H. King.

Spelkin faces a possible life term in federal prison when he is sentenced by George on July 26.

“Unfortunately, the defendant took a very dangerous step to try to avoid going to court,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Andre Birotte Jr. said. “The hope is that this conviction will send a message to others that this kind of crime will be taken seriously and be investigated and prosecuted.”

Spelkin confessed to making an anonymous telephone call in December to a court employee in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Woodland Hills. He told the worker that anthrax, a deadly biotoxin, had been released into the building’s air-conditioning system.

The threat forced evacuation of the courthouse the afternoon of Dec. 18.

A court clerk, aware that Spelkin had delayed a series of bankruptcy hearings, identified him to authorities as a possible suspect. Spelkin later admitted to the FBI that he had phoned in the threat to delay the hearing, in which he was facing accusations of embezzling more than $100,000 from a former employer.

At the time, Spelkin’s hoax was one of a string of anthrax scares in Los Angeles and dozens more nationwide.

Authorities responded to the threats as if they were the real thing, dispatching as many as 150 police officers, firefighters and hazardous-material specialists to the scenes.

Los Angeles police officials put the cost of such responses at about $500,000 each.