Investigators Keep Looking for Big Break in Biofem Case

Police, FBI and hazardous materials teams scoured the Anaheim home of a disgraced surgeon for a second day Saturday, looking for evidence that might link him to the murder attempt on an Irvine businessman.

Irvine police said Dr. Jerry D. Nilsson had cooperated during Friday’s questioning about the plot to kill Biofem Inc. CEO James Patrick Riley and did not have an attorney with him. Police Lt. Sam Allevato said Nilsson also was willing to talk to investigators again. He was not arrested.

Hazardous materials teams found “nothing of great concern,” at Nilsson’s home, Allevato said. He said they found no biological material but did find chemicals “consistent with a medical doctor doing some research.”

Nilsson, 69, could not be reached for comment Saturday.

In the latest twist in a case that keeps getting stranger, Nilsson was escorted from his house in handcuffs Friday after police said they had evidence that may link him to the Feb. 28 shooting. Nilsson is a longtime friend and hunting partner of Dr. Larry C. Ford, Riley’s partner at Biofem.

Ford committed suicide March 2, a day after detectives searched his Irvine house. A week later, about 200 of his neighbors were evacuated from their homes for three days while police painstakingly unearthed a cache of weapons and explosives buried in the doctor’s backyard, as well as suspicious biological materials that are now being tested.

Police continue to search for the shooter, but said they have ruled out Nilsson. Prosecutors have charged Dino D’Saachs, a Los Angeles businessman and close friend of Ford’s, with driving the gunman’s getaway van.

Because of their discoveries at Ford’s home, police took special precautions at the three-bedroom house that Nilsson shares with his girlfriend and her three children. Police had the Deerwood Drive house under surveillance for two days before they used a ruse to get Nilsson outside and avoid what they feared would turn into a standoff.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad made the first run through the house Saturday, checking the underground crawl space that is common in homes built in the early 1960s. Hazardous materials experts from the FBI and the Anaheim Fire Department spent most of their time in the garage, bringing out boxes of materials for testing. Results are not expected for weeks.

Detectives also planned to enter the house to remove medical and other records. Allevato said investigators had not had time Saturday to examine them.

In addition, a box of material taken during a search Friday of the Orange home of a business associate of Nilsson’s will also be tested.

Police previously had questioned Nilsson’s girlfriend, Janice Schechtman, but Allevato said “nothing connects her to any of this.”

Schechtman’s ex-husband, Alan Schechtman, said he was interviewed by the FBI on Saturday.

Ford met Nilsson while studying and working at UCLA about 20 years ago, according to the Ford family’s attorney, Bill Bollard.

The two shared a love of hunting and traveled together to Africa on safaris, Bollard said. Ford also saw patients at Nilsson’s clinics, he said.

But their friendship began to sour at least two years ago, Bollard said.

Nilsson, interested in buying property in Nevada where he could search for gold, asked Ford to test soil samples for the precious metal, Bollard said.

Ford only found trace amounts of gold, but Nilsson continued seeking investors for mines, a practice that troubled Ford, Bollard said.

Other behavior also left Ford uncomfortable, Bollard said, particularly when allegations surfaced that Nilsson had sexually molested one patient and carried on a long affair with another that began when she was 14.

Last Monday, those allegations led the Medical Board of California to take away Nilsson’s license to practice medicine.

“I think that he felt Nilsson’s behavior was becoming increasingly erratic,” Bollard said.

A day after Ford’s suicide, Nilsson and his attorney visited Ford’s wife, Bollard said. Nilsson asked her to sign over to a nonprofit company all rights to her husband’s projects. Nilsson told Diane Ford the company would use science to benefit Third World countries, Bollard said. She refused to sign any documents and referred Nilsson to her attorney, he said.

Bollard said he could not discuss Ford’s projects but that the FBI and the Orange County Grand Jury were investigating them.

Nilsson may have been working on a product that Biofem was involved with, according to a longtime friend. Biofem is developing a vaginal suppository that the firm claims acts as a contraceptive that can block sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Nilsson spent years trying to arrange funding and permission to start testing the Inner Confidence suppositories in Africa, said George D. Demos, a clinical psychologist.

Nilsson was working independently of Biofem’s CEO, Riley, according to Demos. He said the surgeon had in recent months talked about setting up a meeting with Riley to discuss his plans.

“Jerry had been working day and night on this project for the last six months,” Demos said.

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Timeline

Feb 28: A masked gunman shoots and wounds Biofem Inc. CEO James Patrick Riley in the face as he arrives for work at the drug company’s Irvine Spectrum office. Police that evening arrest Dino D’Saachs, a Los Angeles businessman, on suspicion of helping the shooter flee.

March 1: D’Saachs is charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Irvine police search the home of Dr. Larry C. Ford, biofem co-founder and the firm’s director of science.

March 2: Ford commits suicide.

March 3: Police again search Ford’s home and remove dozens of small jars containing “suspicious substances.”

March 8: Police evacuate more than 200 residents around Ford’s Woodbridge house and shut down a nearby elementary school. FBI agents and local police spend three days unearthing a cache of weapons and explosives from the home’s backyard.

March 31: Police detain and question Dr. Jerry D. Nilsson, a longtime friend of Ford’s in connection with the shooting.