Professor busted in hantavirus hoax
Thomas Francis Hale, 61, was arrested by FBI agents Tuesday at the Salt Lake City International Airport after stepping off a flight from Chicago.
"He was surprised to be arrested," FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Tim Fuhrman said Thursday.
According to a federal grand jury indictment handed down on Dec. 13 and unsealed Thursday, Hale is accused of lying under oath and hiding assets during recent bankruptcy proceedings and then making the threatening hoax.
FBI agents said Thursday that Hale was in bankruptcy back in September when he lied under oath about the value of a home he keeps in Salt Lake City's Sugar House neighborhood. He told the bankruptcy trustee it was valued at $190,000. In the indictment, federal prosecutors allege that Hale took steps to hide its true value of $395,000.
Federal agents said Hale sent a threatening fax to the bankruptcy trustee on Nov. 16.
"He indicated there was going to be something coming by mail," Fuhrman said.
When an envelope arrived addressed to the federal court employee, she called the Salt Lake City Police Department. The federal indictment claims that Hale said the envelope contained hantavirus, a potentially deadly virus spread by rodent droppings.
Testing on the envelope turned up nothing hazardous, authorities said.
On Thursday, Hale made his initial appearance before a federal magistrate. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and a trial date was set for March 5 in federal court. Hale faces up to 20 years in prison, if convicted.
The charge of providing false information and perpetrating a hoax is a recent one, federal authorities said.
"This hoax statute came about subsequent to 9/11 and the anthrax scares that were going on there," Fuhrman said. "You don't have the ability as a layperson to determine if something is hazardous or not."
E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
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