Doctor never believed bacteria was anthrax

Art Nadler

Tuesday, Feb. 24, 1998 | 10:25 a.m.

Dr. Daniel Fuller Royal, the Las Vegas osteopath whose Henderson office became the site of an FBI sting operation last week, said he never felt the material seized was deadly anthrax bacteria.

"Mr. (William Job) Leavitt (Jr.) said from the development that it was a vaccine," Royal said Monday. "It is a shame that someone like Mr. Leavitt and his family had to be dragged through this. I hope in the future the name of suspects won't be released until they are charged."

Leavitt was released from jail Saturday after tests showed that a suspected biological toxin, thought to be deadly military-grade anthrax, was a harmless veterinary vaccine. He and Larry Wayne Harris, a former member of the Aryan Nations, were charged with possession of anthrax for use as a weapon.

Charges were dropped against Leavitt and Harris on Monday.

Royal said he never met Harris or Ronald Rockwell, a self-proclaimed cancer researcher. Rockwell had sought to sell Harris and Leavitt his AZ58 Ray Tube, which he claims can kill bacteria and cure everything including the common cold.

Royal said he and Leavitt were working on their own project to treat immune deficiencies. The experiment involved drawing a patient's blood, exposing it to ultraviolet light and then injecting it back into the body.

The osteopath said the process is still in its early stages and hasn't been proven to work.

Royal said he might have given Leavitt a key to his office, The Royal Center of Advanced Medicine, 2501 N. Green Valley Parkway, but that the facility wasn't equipped for testing. He suspects that Leavitt and Harris had stopped by to pick up some petri dishes and were planning to do testing elsewhere.

"I have no idea what they were planning or doing because anybody who is here after hours needs to have my permission," Royal said. "All I know is what the FBI has said, which is that the people they had been following were on the premises since seven o'clock... I have no idea what they were doing or planning to do, or what was in the cooler..."

Royal said he never closed his office from the time of the arrests. Licensed to practice homeopathy in Nevada since August 1990, he is a 1985 graduate of UNLV. He graduated from the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific in Pamona, Calif., in 1989.

(((SUN correspondent Valerie Miller contributed to this story.)))