Attorney: Ivins never knew he was 'the suspect'

WASHINGTON - As the government pegs the blame for the 2001 deadly attacks on one Army biologist, the attorney for scientist Bruce Ivins says his client never knew he was "the suspect" in the attacks.

"We were never informed or advised that an indictment was imminent of him," attorney Tom DeGonia tells WTOP. DeGonia's broadcast interview is Ivins' lawyers' first interview since Ivins committed suicide.

Ivins, a Fort Detrick scientist, overdosed on acetaminophen. He died July 29, hours before he was set to meet with the government about the case. Even though Ivins had died, DeGonia and co-counsel Paul Kemp still met with the Justice Department that day. It was then, DeGonia says, the government offered up a reverse proffer -- its plans to seek an indictment against Ivins.

"It had never been made clear to him nor to us that he was 'the suspect,'" says DeGonia, Ivins' co-counsel.

But sources familiar with the investigation tell WTOP Ivins told his therapist, Jean Duley, and another person that he knew he was about to be indicted on five counts of capital murder. The anthrax attacks killed five people and sickened 17 others.

Questioning the Government's Case

While government scientists working on the anthrax investigation genetically linked the killer anthrax to a flask in Ivins' lab, one under his control, prosecutors relied on circumstantial evidence to piece their case together.

"They've maintained that they are confident they have the correct person. Neither we nor the public have been presented with any hard, direct evidence, of the doctor's involvement in these killings," DeGonia says.

While DeGonia acknowledges he's speaking out to protect Ivins' reputation as much as possible, DeGonia says the public should question the government's case.

He says the government has leaked information that 15 different research facilities across the country had access to the anthrax in question.

"It's very difficult when you have no direct evidence that this man was involved in it to say that he was the only one that had access to this material," DeGonia says.

A search warrant affidavit indicated the government had other potential suspects, he says.

"In that affidavit there are at least eight other people who the government had the same suspicions on or enough suspicions anyway to get either search warrants for either their laboratories or their homes or their vehicles and how those people were eliminated. We just have no information about how they were eliminated."

Was He A Homicidal Sociopath? A Revenge Killer?

FBI agents aggressively pursued Ivins over the past year. That's what friends say caused Ivins, 62, to deteriorate mentally.

According to court documents, therapist Jean Duley described Ivins as a "homicidal" and a "sociopath." She won a protective order against him, after treating him for six months.

"I think you have to look at the source of that information," DeGonia says. "The therapist trainee who relayed that information, relayed it in court, with an FBI agent at her side. There are all kinds of issues about what someone says in the course of treatment whether that, what that is, we have no context for that information.

"We're not saying that he wasn't depressed. He was suffering from depression. He was drinking excessively, much later on in the investigation. But to say that information is valid, I would really, I would highly challenge the credibility of the source of that information."

In a court hearing, Duley described Ivins as a "revenge killer" who had previously tried to poison people.

"There is absolutely no evidence to support anything like that. I mean absolutely, categorically, no evidence to support that," DeGonia says.

Sources familiar with the investigation say they were surprised by that aspect of Duley's testimony. Ivins had no prior arrests or convictions for trying to kill anyone.

Will DeGonia Try to Clear Ivins' Name?

Because the anthrax case is an unindicted case, Ivins family and his attorneys are not entitled to much of the government's information.

"Obviously our concern is that the government has taken a couple of threads about a person's life and is trying to build a case around that without looking at the entirety of the evidence and without looking at the entire person," DeGonia says.

DeGonia says that because the case won't get tried, the allegations against Ivins can't be proven nor disproven.

"All you have are government leaks and the selective information they choose to release at this point. As that information becomes available, we will comment on it as appropriate."

How's the Family Doing?

At a memorial service for Ivins, DeGonia says scientists and soldiers who knew him choked back tears at his loss.

"Anyone who was there would know that the evil person that they are portraying was just not Dr. Bruce Ivins," DeGonia says.

But DeGonia tells WTOP the family is aware of the reality. Ivins will likely always be known in history as the anthrax killer who terrorized the nation.

"I think the family has taken a lot of solace in the fact that they knew who he was."

(Copyright 2008 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)