7/8/2004: Dr. Kurtz's charges were lowered to what his attorney calls "petty larceny," or four counts of mail and wire fraud. Dr. Steve Kurtz, professor of art at SUNY Buffalo and a member of the Critical Art Ensemble, was charged on June 29th by a federal grand jury in Buffalo, New York—not with bioterrorism, as listed on the Joint Terrorism Task Force's original search warrant and subpoenas, but with "petty larceny," in the words of Kurtz attorney Paul Cambria. The laws under which the indictments were obtained cover mail and wire fraud. This is a far cry from the bioterrorism charges originally sought by the District Attorney. Also indicted was Robert Ferrell, head of the Department of Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Public Health. The charges concern technicalities of how Ferrell helped Kurtz to obtain $256 worth of harmless bacteria for one of Kurtz's art projects.

Kurtz was detained as a suspected bioterrorist following the arrival of police at his house due to the death of his wife from cardiac arrest on May 11. When the police arrived, they became suspicious of Kurtz's art supplies and called the FBI. Soon agents from the Joint Terrorism Task Force and FBI detained Kurtz, cordoned off the entire block around his house, and later impounded Kurtz’s computers, manuscripts, books, equipment, and even his wife’s body for further analysis. Dr. Kurtz and CAE are internationally recognized lecturers in the areas of biotechnology, information technology and media studies. Nine artists and one book publishing company, Autonomedia, were subpoened in this case.
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