Man with ricin is sentenced

He had struggled with painkillers and alcohol. He was often depressed. In the late ‘90s, after a love affair ended, Roger Bergendorff turned to making the toxic powder ricin.

“I felt this was a harmless outlet for my anger, a potential shield” against those who might harm him, Bergendorff said. “I could not have used it even if I wanted to, because I fear God’s judgment.”

But possession of the poison, whose only legal use is for cancer research, is a federal crime. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Robert C. Jones sentenced Bergendorff to 3 1/2 years in prison -- slightly longer than prosecutors recommended -- for having ricin and unregistered firearm silencers. He was also fined $7,500.

Bergendorff’s cousin, Thomas Tholen, was sentenced to probation last month in Utah for failing to tell authorities that Bergendorff was carrying ricin. The U.S. attorney for Nevada, Gregory A. Brower, said after Monday’s sentencing that there was “no broader plot or scheme or plan” to attack others with the poisonous substance.

In February, Bergendorff was living in an Extended Stay America in Las Vegas when he was hospitalized with symptoms of congestive heart failure, court papers said. In Room 3700, authorities recovered castor beans, whose processing waste is used to make ricin; a weapons cache; a copy of “The Anarchist Cookbook” with a page about ricin marked; and four “crude” grams of the toxin.

Investigators found respirators, gloves and chemicals “that could be used in the production of ricin” in one of Bergendorff’s storage units in Utah, court papers said. There was also a drawing of “an injection delivery device” disguised as a pen.

Bergendorff said he made the silencers for fun. And the poison, he maintained, was not what knocked him unconscious for weeks -- though, because ricin quickly breaks down in the body, that is impossible to determine.

During the hearing, an unkempt and weary-looking Bergendorff spoke for nearly 10 minutes.

He hunched over the defense table, quoted poet Robert Browning and became so choked up that a prosecutor passed him a box of tissues.

“I’m not a religious zealot, a killer, a nut or a terrorist,” said the onetime graphic designer who spent much of his life in Southern California.

Bergendorff told investigators that he first made ricin while living in San Diego. In 2002, while living in Reno, he purchased castor bean seeds through the mail using the fake business name “Roger’s Patio and Garden,” authorities said.

Bergendorff, who years ago suffered a heart attack and is at least $10,000 in debt, eventually moved to suburban Salt Lake City.

He stayed in Tholen’s basement and delivered pizzas before moving to Las Vegas.

Eyes lowered and voice nearly inaudible, Bergendorff told the judge he had found solace in religion and was on a “mission” to help his younger brother, though it was unclear how.

The judge granted a request to have Bergendorff imprisoned in Southern California, near relatives. “My dream,” Bergendorff said, “is to have three German shepherds, five cats and a woman to love.”

--

ashley.powers@latimes.com