Man Suspended After Anthrax Search

A Frederick, Md., doctor whose apartment was searched by federal agents for a second time Thursday in the ongoing anthrax investigation was suspended from his job Friday, his attorney said.

Steven J. Hatfill, 48, a former Army researcher and biochemist at Ft. Detrick, the Pentagon’s top biodefense research center, has not been charged and has not been called a suspect in last fall’s anthrax mailings, which killed five people, authorities said.

Last month, he accepted a job as associate director of Louisiana State University’s biomedical research center. But the university suspended him for 30 days with pay, said Victor M. Glasberg, Hatfill’s attorney.

Hatfill, who had access to anthrax spores similar to those mailed last fall, took an FBI polygraph test in February, invited the FBI to search his apartment in June and had offered to meet with investigators again this week, Glasberg said.