Source says Army finds that Las Vegas anthrax nonlethal

Saturday, Feb. 21, 1998 | 10:34 a.m.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Army tests have concluded that a substance seized by FBI agents from two men in suburban Las Vegas, Nev., was a nonlethal form of anthrax used in vaccines, a federal official said today.

The materials that FBI agents discovered Wednesday night when they descended on a beige Mercedes and its two occupants in Henderson were taken to an Army laboratory at Fort Dietrick, Md., for testing.

The Army found that the material "is not capable of producing the toxins that normal anthrax would produce," said the official, who requested anonymity.

However, the FBI seized other material in Ohio from houses owned by Larry Wayne Harris, a former Aryan Nation member arrested in Las Vegas. That material was still being tested at Fort Dietrick, and those tests will not be completed before Monday.

A federal complaint filed against Harris and William Leavitt after their arrest charged them with conspiracy to possess and possession of a dangerous biological agent.

Lamond Harris, defense attorney for Leavitt, said he had not been informed by the FBI or the U.S. attorney's office about the test results. He called the news reports "really good news."

"Legally, this means their case goes down the toilet," said Mills. "I would expect the U.S. attorney to drop the charges."

Mills said he would try to get his client out of jail as early as today.

An attorney for Harris and the U.S. attorney's office weren't immediately available for comment.

The men were arrested after the FBI received a tip from an informant, Ronald Rockwell, portrayed by the agency as a "citizen performing his civic duty."

A defense lawyer, however, said Friday that Rockwell, a convicted extortionist, is just a scam artist who sought revenge because his scheme to make money off the men failed.

For his part, Rockwell said he was just plain scared when Leavitt and Harris, who were interested in what he called a "germ-killing" machine, said they had the deadly bacteria.

Leavitt and Harris, both microbiologists, were intending to test Rockwell's machine, when Rockwell's claims that the men were carrying deadly anthrax sent federal agents to the Las Vegas area.

Rockwell told the Las Vegas Sun, in a story made available on the newspaper's Web site, that he became suspicious after Harris, 46, and Leavitt, 47, changed their stories about plans for his purported germ-killing machine. Rockwell felt that more common bacteria should be used for testing the machine and became nervous when they told him they had anthrax, he said.

"They just said they had military-grade anthrax," Rockwell told the Sun.

Rockwell told a similar story of his conversations with Leavitt and Harris on the "NBC Nightly News" on Friday.

"They lied on what they were going to do," Rockwell said. "It scared me so bad."

Mills - a former U.S. attorney - said his client didn't think the material was military-grade anthrax but rather anthrax vaccine, which is legal to possess. Leavitt was initially shocked that he was caught up in the investigation, Mills said.

Leavitt was only interested in Rockwell's machine, which Rockwell tried to sell to the men for $2 million, Mills said.

"When he couldn't scam them, he went the other way," Mills said of Rockwell. "He became a good guy for the FBI."

Harris' attorney, Michael Kennedy, said Rockwell's credibility "is something we're going to look into."

Rockwell, who the FBI said was a cancer research scientist, was convicted of felony extortion in 1981 and 1982. But the FBI has vouched for his credibility, saying the "citizen performing his civic duty" came forward on his own.

In an interview with KVBC-TV, Rockwell said he didn't think the men wanted to infect the Las Vegas area. "Bill Leavitt doesn't want to spread nothing around," he said.

The machine Rockwell was peddling was called the AZ-58 Ray Tube Frequency Instrument Prototype. In glossy brochures, Rockwell says the AZ-58 is able to flush the body clean of bacteria and viruses.

Leavitt wanted to test it before making a $100,000 down payment and arranged to fly Harris to Las Vegas about a week ago, said Kirby Wells, a lawyer for Leavitt.

It was unclear how Leavitt, a Mormon bishop with strong political ties, got hooked up with Harris, an alleged white supremacist who has been plugging his self-published book about germ warfare.

The FBI has said Harris met Rockwell last summer at a Denver science conference, while Leavitt's attorneys said they believed Rockwell got the men together.

Leavitt is married with three children and has a fire-protection business. The FBI says he also owns microbiology labs in his hometown of Logandale, Nev., and Frankfurt, Germany.

Harris, who is married, claimed to be a lieutenant colonel in the Idaho-based white supremacist group Aryan Nations, the FBI affidavit said.

Harris called military officials in recent months about testing anthrax at the Dugway Proving Ground, an Army research facility in Utah, said Army Capt. Scott Bertinetti.

"From what we understand, he inquired about testing something there, and he was turned down," Bertinetti told the Los Angeles Times in today's edition. "We don't accept individuals wanting to test stuff."

The captain said it was unclear whether officials at Dugway notified other authorities after Harris contacted them.