Anthrax turns out to be harmless veterinary vaccine

Saturday, Feb. 21, 1998 | 7:47 a.m.

The anthrax scare in Las Vegas came to an abrupt end today, as the FBI announced the substance seized from two men earlier this week has turned out to be a "harmless veterinary vaccine."

At a noon news conference, Bobby Siller, special agent in charge of the Las Vegas FBI office, told a crush of local and national reporters that tests on the substance, conducted at an Army lab in Maryland, revealed that it wasn't the deadly form of anthrax used in biological warfare.

There was no health risk to the community, he said.

Siller stood by the FBI's decision to seize the materials, reiterating his agency acted in the interests of public safety.

"We truly felt, and we do now, that we had enough probable cause to believe that there was a danger to the community," he said.

Siller said the FBI believed that the two defendants -- Larry Wayne Harris, 46, of Lancaster, Ohio, and William Job Leavitt, Jr., 47, who lives in Overton -- were capable of possessing anthrax.

"Both Mr. Harris and Mr. Leavitt made statements to more than one individual that they had in their possession military grade anthrax and that they intended to test this anthrax at a medical center located in a business residential area of a heavily populated suburban community," Siller said.

"Because of the potential serious threat to the community, our action had to be quick and decisive."

Siller said the FBI expected Harris and Leavitt to remain in jail over the weekend and that the investigation was continuing.

But Leavitt's lawyer, Lamond Mills, who had contended all along the substance was a harmless vaccine, said he had struck a deal with the U.S. attorney's office to release his client on his own recognizance while the FBI decided how to proceed with the criminal case.

"The FBI is behind the curve," Mills said. "We have negotiated Bill Leavitt's release."

Leavitt, a former Mormon bishop, conducts medical research in Overton, about 65 miles northeast of Las Vegas. He has no criminal record. Harris, an ex-member of the Aryan Nations white supremacist group, has a 1995 conviction in Ohio for fraudulently obtaining bubonic plague toxins.

Mills said he believed the charges should be dismissed against Leavitt, but he was under the impression the FBI planned to amend them instead.

"They don't have the case they thought they had," Mills said.

The FBI, Mills said, still planned to go ahead with a court-approved search of Leavitt's property and research lab in Overton.

Leavitt has agreed to stay away from the lab as part of his release terms.

Assistant Federal Public Defender Michael Kennedy, who represents Harris, today called the test results from Maryland a "good fact."

"It bodes well for Mr. Harris in his defense," Kennedy said. "We're going to put on a vigorous defense."

Kennedy said he did not believe his client would be released from jail over the weekend.

Prosecutors are looking at possible probation violations against Harris stemming from the 1995 conviction.

Siller said the FBI still was analyzing materials seized late in the week from Harris' Lancaster home.

Leavitt's other lawyer, Kirby Wells, said Leavitt "broke up" when told the news of the test results today.

"It's a great day for Bill Leavitt and his family," said Wells, who indicated jail officials had been keeping his client in solitary confinement since his arrest Wednesday night.

Wells said Leavitt was heavily shackled and wore a surgical mask during the lawyer's jailhouse visit.

The FBI, Mills said, "reacted properly" in moving swiftly to arrest Harris and Leavitt once agents were told they allegedly were carrying the deadly form of anthrax.

But he added: "I just hope they don't now, in order to save face or something, give us a cockamamie charge that they want to lay on Bill Leavitt.

"We played it straight up. I hope they play it straight up and accept the fact that Bill Leavitt is not a criminal."

Both of Leavitt's lawyers again cast doubt on the FBI's chief source in the case, Ronald G. Rockwell, a medical researcher the FBI acknowledge has two extortion convictions.

"He is far from a credible witness," said Mills, who contended Rockwell was trying to sell Leavitt equipment that could test a miracle vaccine for anthrax.

Mills said that Rockwell wanted money up front in the deal and when he didn't get it, he made up some "outlandish" allegations against his client.

Mills said he has been told there are 18 lawsuits, mostly relating to alleged fraud, filed against Rockwell.

"That's their witness, and on that, we have worldwide news," Mills said.

Wells added: "Mr. Rockwell needs to be scrutinized very carefully. If he gave false information, and the government relied on that false information, and my client was put through 48 hours of hell, I think somebody should look at that."

A woman who answered the door at Rockwell's residence said late this afternoon that he had no comment. The residence at 2821 Merritt Ave. also is the address of Rockwell Scientific Research.

Harris and Leavitt are scheduled to appear before Hunt on Monday.