Controversial CFS Researcher Arrested and Jailed - ScienceInsider http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/11/controversial-cfs-researcher-arr.html?ref=em... AAAS.ORG FEEDBACK HELP LIBRARIANS Daily News Enter Search Term ADVANCED ALERTS ACCESS RIGHTS MY ACCOUNT SIGN IN News Home ScienceNOW ScienceInsider Premium Content from Science About Science News Home > News > ScienceInsider > November 2011 > Controversial CFS Researcher Arrested and Jailed Controversial CFS Researcher Arrested and Jailed by Jon Cohen on 19 November 2011, 6:46 PM | 16 Comments Email Print | 0 More PREVIOUS ARTICLE NEXT ARTICLE 1 of 5 12/1/11 10:06 AM Controversial CFS Researcher Arrested and Jailed - ScienceInsider http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/11/controversial-cfs-researcher-arr.html?ref=em... Judy Mikovits, who has been in the spotlight for the past 2 years after Science published a controversial report by her group that tied a novel mouse retrovirus to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), is now behind bars. Sheriffs in Ventura County, California, arrested Mikovits yesterday on felony charges that she is a fugitive from justice. She is being held at the Todd Road Jail in Santa Paula without bail. But ScienceInsider could obtain only sketchy details about the specific charges against her. The Ventura County sheriff's office told ScienceInsider that it had no available details about the charges and was acting upon a warrant issued by Washoe County in Nevada. A spokesperson for the Washoe County Sheriff's Office told ScienceInsider that it did not issue the warrant, nor did the Reno or Sparks police department. He said it could be from one of several federal agencies in Washoe County. Lois Hart, one of Mikovits's attorneys, says her client is being held for extradition to Reno, Nevada, in relation to a civil lawsuit against her filed by the Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease (WPI). Mikovits worked as the research director at WPI, a nonprofit in Reno, for 2 years until she was fired by its president, Annette Whittemore, on 29 September. On 4 November, WPI filed suit against Mikovits, alleging that she had wrongfully kept her laboratory notebooks and other information about her work for the fledgling institute on her laptop, in flash drives, and in a personal e-mail account. A preliminary injunction in the case is set to be held by Nevada's Second District Judicial Court on 22 November. On that same day, Mikovits has a hearing in Ventura County, California, where she can contest extradition, Hart says. Annette and her husband Harvey Whittemore, who has worked as a high-profile attorney for the gaming industry and a major real estate developer, started WPI to help find causes and treatments for CFS and other neuroimmune diseases like Gulf War syndrome and fibromyalgia. Their adult daughter has CFS. Hart strongly denied the charges against her client. "She does not have the notebooks, nor any 'proprietary items' from WPI," Hart wrote ScienceInsider in an e-mail. "She is entitled to a copy of the information she created." On 7 November, a judge from the Nevada court granted a request for a temporary restraining order against Mikovits to prohibit her from "destroying, altering, disseminating, or using trade secrets and confidential information." The order contended that "immediate and irreparable injury, loss, or damage will result to WPI if it does not get this relief." But the order does not explicitly forbid Mikovits, who lives in Ventura, California, from leaving the state of Nevada. After Mikovits and her research team's Science study appeared in October 2009, many other groups around the world reported that they could not find the mouse retrovirus, dubbed XMRV, in people who had CFS. Mikovits and colleagues subsequently participated in a multilab study that resulted in a September Science Express paper describing how none of the teams could reliably find XMRV in blinded samples from CFS patients. One lab Mikovits collaborated with in the 2009 Science report simultaneously retracted its contribution after discovering that a contaminant explained its XMRV findings. UPDATE, 19 November at 7:39 p.m. EST: Annette Whittemore, president of the Whittemore Peterson Institute, has issued the following statement: 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. 2 of 5 12/1/11 10:06 AM Controversial CFS Researcher Arrested and Jailed - ScienceInsider http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/11/controversial-cfs-researcher-arr.html?ref=em... Follow ScienceInsider on Facebook and Twitter CHRONIC FATIGUE XMRV Posted in Science Community Email Print | Share 0 tweet More Related on Insider NOVEMBER 25, 2011 Occupy London's School of Hard Knocks NOVEMBER 29, 2011 NOVEMBER 22, 2011 CFS Researcher Reportedly Inmate Mikovits Meets Judge Surrenders to Nevada Police Login Your name (required) Share This Page Please keep your comments polite and to the point.... Follow Cancel Post Echo 16 Items Admin george 'Chronic Fatigue Syndrome', perhaps the most notorious example of a newly-minted 'disease' in search of validation over the last few decades. Yesterday, 13:16:16 – Flag – Like – Reply john levy The WPI is an institute that lacks any credibility. As a scientist, Mikovits is entitled to her note books as the PI. WPI can have a copy of her notes upon request. Although WPI has the IP rights of Mikovits' discoveries at WPI, Mikovits is the inventor, and by law, she has the right to the records of her notebooks and research materials. WPI is run by the bunch of hillbillies who have no idea about scientific research. Almost all principal investigators take the lab stuf and notebooks with them when they leave their current institutions. Otherwise, how can these PIs continue their researches for the common good? 2 days ago, 00:48:32 – Flag – Like – Reply Liisa Priya Lugus judy mikovits did in fact have her research assistant, max, steal the lab notebooks from WPI. this information has been provided in an afdavit from max himself. her agreement with WPI was that any information from her research at WPI becomes the intellectual property of WPI. she had no legal right to take it. 5 days ago, 11:35:57 – Flag – Like – Reply OMSJ Anyone know who the attorney Lois Hart is? I didn't find an y attorneys by that name in the Calif or Nevada bar searches... 11/22/2011, 14:13:03 – Flag – Like – Reply E It seems that attorney Lois Hart is from Idaho. See http://www.rgj.com/article/20111122 /NEWS/111220329/Reno-chronic-disease-researcher-behind- bars?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Local%20News|s “Lois Hart, an Idaho lawyer who also has represented Mikovits, denied charges against her client in a letter sent this month to the institute's attorneys” Googling 'attorney Lois Hart', one finds: Attorney : Lois W. Hart Hart W Information Key Id 3357087 Address 122 West Idaho Avenue, P.O. Box 325 Homedale, ~ID~ 83628 Biography Recipient, American Jurisprudenc Degree Year 1988 3 of 5 12/1/11 10:06 AM Controversial CFS Researcher Arrested and Jailed - ScienceInsider http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/11/controversial-cfs-researcher-arr.html?ref=em... sic 811103 specialty Bankruptcy Litigation school Washington State University Uni Postgrad school University of Idaho, J.D., 1988 Admitted 1988, Idaho and U.S. District Court, District of Idaho Memberships Idaho State Bar. Loc born New Britain, Connecticut, July 1 11/22/2011, 17:09:46 – Flag – Like – Reply heidi Yes, I'm really curious as to what these "felony charges" include... 11/21/2011, 18:32:45 – Flag – Like – Reply Eleanor “As we reported in March the WPI owns a company that had been charging individuals with CFS about $549 for an XMRV test” ( From Nature News Blog, Researcher arrested....) The Whittemores and the Institute they support don’t deserve a penny from NIH taxpayer’s money. Individuals and organizations abusing power and/or using tactics that blatantly overstep human dignity while hoisting their philanthropy’s flag and concerns for patients and cures are suspects. That Dr Mikovitz has intentionally committed wrongdoing has yet to be proven. And it should be proved for the sake of patients and the science needed to advance knowledge and treatment of the disease. That the Whittemores and their Institute have committed wrongdoing by firing a scientist over the phone is a fact. And they appeared to have instigated the process that has placed Dr Mikovits in jail. If there were serious concerns about Dr Mikovit’s work they should have told her the serious reasons for their extreme concern and the need to place her in administrative leave with salary until all the issues were clarified and resolved. The facts known so far point out that the Whittemores major concern is profit at any price, including potential personal and professional destruction of a human being, and their philanthropy a way of securing investment. The use of their daughter’s afiction to show their spiritual identification with patients is a shame and sheer theatre. 11/21/2011, 18:05:44 – Flag – Like – Reply RT Angler This is a travesty of justice. Nine -- count em NINE -- cops searched the house of one of Judy Mikovits friends. You'd think Judy Mikovits was a serial killer. This is outrageous. The Whittemores sicken me. 11/21/2011, 16:36:32 – Flag – Like – Reply Subho A sad day for science, a terrible day for mankind. 11/21/2011, 14:38:43 – Flag – Like – Reply Liked by Guest Pamela Another set back for the sick 11/21/2011, 09:22:15 – Flag – Like – Reply Liked by Subho jennifer This is an example of the rich, powerful, politically connected elite abusing the legal system and police agencies to further their own end.