by=A0Jon Cohen=A0on=A022 November 2011, 4:04 PM
After police in Ventura County, California,=A0arrested and jailed Judy
Mikovits on 18 November, they gave few details about the felony
charges levied against the well-known chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)
researcher. According to the Ventura County Sheriff, she was a
fugitive from justice arrested on a warrant from Washoe County,
Nevada, and was "not bailable."
Now=A0ScienceInsider has learned that her felony arrest warrant was
issued by the Reno Justice Court in Washoe County. The District
Attorney there has charged Mikovits with "possession of stolen
property," according to a document filed with the court, and "unlawful
taking of computer data, equipment, supplies, or other computer
related property." Mikovits's former employer, the Whittemore Peterson
Institute (WPI) for Neuro-Immune Disease in Reno, also filed court
documents yesterday that further shed light on the arrest.
WPI fired Mikovits on 29 September because it said she refused to
share a cell line with another researcher there.
On 4 November, WPI filed a civil lawsuit against Mikovits at Washoe
County's Second Judicial District Court in Reno. That breach of
contract case alleged that Mikovits wrongfully took laboratory
notebooks and other data from her lab after WPI fired her.
WPI is housed on the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno, and the
chief of the campus police, Adam Garcia, told=A0ScienceInsider that the
arrest warrant is related to a break in and theft reported to his
department on 9 November. Garcia would not specify the date the
alleged break in took place. Garcia also would not specify who
reported the alleged crime beyond saying it was WPI "staff." He noted
that there was an ongoing investigation and would neither confirm nor
deny involvement of other law enforcement agencies. "This is a
University of Nevada Police case," he said. Garcia said that contrary
to information on the Ventura County Sheriff's Web site. Mikovits
could be freed on $100,000 bail. Mikovits has an appearance in the
criminal case scheduled for today in the Ventura Superior Court at
1:30 p.m.
A preliminary injuction on the civil case is, coincidentally, also
scheduled to take place today at the exact same time at Second
Judicial District Court in Reno, which Mikovits's attorneys filed a
motion to oppose. In a reply to their motion, WPI's counsel yesterday
filed documents with the Second Judicial Court in Reno that accuse
Mikovits of having "masterminded the theft of the Misappropriated
Property." WPI's attorneys allege that Mikovits "instructed" a
research assistant who worked with her to "take irreplaceable patient
samples and laboratory notebooks." According to their court filing and
an affidavit from the research assistant, he followed her instructions
and hid the notebooks in a "Happy Birthday" bag, first at his condo
and later in his mother's garage. The court filing says Mikovits
retrieved them on 17 October. Garcia says it is yet to be determined
whether others will be arrested.
Calls to Mikovits's lead civil attorneys were not returned, and at
press time earlier today, it was unclear who would represent her at
the criminal hearing.
Mikovits stepped into an international spotlight in October 2009 when
she headed a team that published a study in=A0Science=A0about a possibly
groundbreaking discovery related to CFS. Mikovits and colleagues
reported that 67% of CFS patients they tested harbored a recently
discovered mouse retrovirus dubbed XMRV. Other labs soon reported that
they had difficulty confirming the finding, which led the CFS
community to split into different camps. WPI staunchly stood by
Mikovits's work, even after one of the labs she collaborated with in
the=A0Sciencestudy retracted its contribution to the paper because
contamination had tainted data it supplied. The falling out between
WPI and Mikovits came about after a second=A0Science=A0paper that she
co-authored reported that nine labs=97including WPI's=97could not reliably
find XMRV or related viruses in blinded patient samples.
Mikovits lives in Ventura County and a friend of hers there, Lilly
Meehan, had her house searched on 18 November in relation to the case.
"I was made to sit down in my recliner and they wouldn't let me stand
or get water," says Meehan, who said three Ventura County Police
officers presented her with a search warrant and then combed through
her house for half an hour.
Meehan, who has two daughters with CFS, believes she was dragged into
the investigation because of her blog postings that defended Mikovits.
On a blog for CFS patients and advocates, Meehan criticized a letter
to "friends and patients" from WPI's president, Annette Whittemore,
that explained why the institute had sued Mikovits. "I am beyond
outraged at the shameful accusations thinly veiled by Annette
Whittemore in her letter today," wrote Meehan.
Meehan now is managing a legal defense fund for Mikovits.
Annette Whittemore, president of the Whittemore Peterson Institute,
issued the following statement on 19 November:
The Whittemore Peterson Institute was required to report the theft of
its laboratory materials to law enforcement authorities. These
authorities are taking the actions that they deem necessary.
http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/11/details-emerge-of-the-cri=
minal.html?ref=3Dra
---------------------------------------------
Send posts to CO-CURE@listserv.nodak.edu
Unsubscribe at http://www.co-cure.org/unsub.htm
Too much mail? Try a digest version. See http://www.co-cure.org/digest.htm
---------------------------------------------
Co-Cure's purpose is to provide information from across the spectrum of
opinion concerning medical, research and political aspects of ME/CFS and/or
FMS. We take no position on the validity of any specific scientific or
political opinion expressed in Co-Cure posts, and we urge readers to
research the various opinions available before assuming any one
interpretation is definitive. The Co-Cure website <www.co-cure.org> has a
link to our complete archive of posts as well as articles of central
importance to the issues of our community.
---------------------------------------------
