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Judy Mikovits has been arrested

oceanblue

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UK
Thanks.

Judy M turned herself in to University of Nevada Police (waiving her extraditon hearing in California) and was taken into custody but released the same day. According to her lawyer Scott Freeman, Judy M is baffled by the criminal process and they will be arguing there was never any ciminal intent in taking the property.

Police Commander Todd Renwick says they will "pursue any criminal wrongdoing in this case", complete an investigation and submit a report to the Washoe District Attorney's office.

So it now seems that Judy M has admitted taking (or being responsible for taking) the property and has returned it, but will argue she didn't think taking it was a criminal act.

From the same website:
According to court documents, the State has filed two complaints against Mikovits; count one: Possession of stolen property; count two: Unlawfully taking computer data and equipment -- both felonies.

Mikovits was the lead researcher at the Whittemore Peterson Institute before she was fired in August.

The Iinstitute alleges she "wrongfully removed lab notebooks and other proprietary information."

The criminal complaint states that Mikovits directed her former research associate to take various items, in order to prevent the true owner from again possessing the property.

Mikovits' lawyer, Scott Freeman, says his client is baffled at the criminal charges filed against her.

Mikovits waived her extradition hearing set for December 19th in Ventura County, Calif. and turned herself in to University of Nevada - Reno Police Monday.

Authorities say they have recovered all of the items believed to be stolen. Now experts are looking through the items to determine if there was any criminal intent.

After turning herself in on Monday, Mikovits was taken into custody by Washoe County Sheriff's Deputies, but she was released the same day.
 

Snow Leopard

Hibernating
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South Australia
I'm not convinced that is its worthwhile for any of us to spend any more time actually worrying about this (regardless of what outcome you expect). There are far more important things for us to dedicate our (limited) energies towards.
 

oceanblue

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UK
Obviously only for those still interested in this story: The video also appears over at cfscentral, and a comment there, quoting a WPI lawyer, says
"The damage to the Whittemore Peterson Institute is substantial and recent news coverage indicating that WPI may dismiss its civil case against Dr. Judy Mikovits is incorrect."

Annette Whittemore
President
Whittemore Peterson Institute
I do wish they could all kiss and make up.
 

Firestormm

Senior Member
Messages
5,055
Location
Cornwall England
Well I am still interested.

29 November: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_19432938

'The Reno Gazette-Journal first reported in Tuesday's editions that 18 notebooks had been turned over to California authorities. KRNV-TV first reported Tuesday that Mikovits had turned herself in to University of Nevada, Reno campus police.

Freeman [her attorney] said she actually surrendered to Washoe County deputies. He confirmed the notebooks had been returned "because they were requested."

"Consistent with her innocence, we were more than happy to provide it," he told The Associated Press. He said any delay in producing the materialswhich Mikovits initially denied havingstemmed from her failure to fully understand the workings of the legal system

"Explaining to a scientist how the criminal system works is like a scientist explaining to us how to cure cancer," Freeman said.'

Sorry, but is that her defence? That she didn't understand what she was doing was theft do you think? I mean previously her lawyers have been stating that she didn't have the missing property. I don't understand...

In addition over on CFS Central: http://www.cfscentral.com/2011/11/judy-mikovits-turns-herself-in.html

'An email some of us received from SNR Denton, Audrey Young, attorney, states the following:

Please find the statement below from Whittemore Peterson Institute President Annette Whittemore clarifying recent incorrect news coverage related to WPI's lawsuit against Dr. Judy Mikovits.

"The damage to the Whittemore Peterson Institute is substantial and recent news coverage indicating that WPI may dismiss its civil case against Dr. Judy Mikovits is incorrect."

Annette Whittemore

President

Whittemore Peterson Institute '
 
Messages
13,774
Sorry, but is that her defence? That she didn't understand what she was doing was theft do you think? I mean previously her lawyers have been stating that she didn't have the missing property. I don't understand...

The claim that Mikovits denied having the note books etc because she did not understand the law is just incredible. If she honestly thought that she had the legal right to those materials, she could have been entirely open about having them taken.

I'd be really interested to know what Ruscetti is thinking about all this. What a barmy tale this has become.
 

Cort

Phoenix Rising Founder
Joshua..

I may be wrong...I'll have to investigate further.. but if I'm not mistaken, the LAST author mentioned in a publication is the principal investigator/author not the first.

If you check into pubs by Coffin, Miller, or anyone else, they are usually the last name, not the first.

I believe the person listed at the beginning has the least contribution, NOT the most.

My understanding was that the first author does most of the work; last author oversees the project. Anyway, I looked it up.

According to replies to a Student Doctor Network Forum thread this is what the order of authors signifies:

The very broad general rule is 1st author did much of the work operationally, the oversight of the project, and even the writing of the paper. This is usually the person that takes a project from start to finish. Someone senior usually tells them It would be great to do a project on blah blah blah. Why dont you go and tackle it to which they actually get it done. They certainly may get some help in the form of research assistants/associates, etc, but they own the project and take a lead on it. First authorship is considered a significant achievement, generally.

The last author, also called the senior author, is PI or head of the research group (formal or informal Primary Investigator, head of the lab, Chief of a medical unit, or Director of a certain program, etc). This is the someone senior typically from above who has mentored or supervised the project. Their credibility and reputation as a senior author is also factored into each paper they write as last (senior) author.

First author = did most of the work, usually the one who wrote the paper
Last author = usually the PI whose grant paid for the work

1st Author: Person who did most of the work, like write the manuscript, and do most if not all of the experiment.

The order of the authors in the original paper shows that Pfost, by the way, was a pretty good contributor to the paper of the 13 co-authors he was fourth.

Lombardi VC, Ruscetti FW, Das Gupta J, Pfost MA, Hagen KS, Peterson DL, Ruscetti SK, Bagni RK, Petrow-Sadowski C, Gold B, Dean M, Silverman RH, Mikovits JA.
 
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15,786
According to her lawyer Scott Freeman, Judy M is baffled by the criminal process and they will be arguing there was never any ciminal intent in taking the property.

It sounds like her lawyer is a bit baffled by the legal system as well. The element of intent doesn't require that someone intended to commit a crime. It simply requires that they intended to do what they did, which happened to be illegal.
 

Cort

Phoenix Rising Founder
Well, a couple things. All we have is Pfost's word that it was addressed that way. Also, Lambardi being part of the first study doesn't mean he is part of the current one. OTOH, the grant was given to WPI, not Judy. So in a way, they call the shots.

Let's assume for a moment that Judy did what Pfost claims. We all know how passionate Judy is, and in her actions she was probably doing what she thought was best for the research. She felt a great obligation to patients, and assumed she was the best person to complete it. Assuming she took them, that is. This is just speculation. OTOH, WPI has a responsibility for all that research. And if notebooks suddenly go missing, Annette would be a lousy manager if she didn't take action. And taking legal action in what looks like a theft makes sense.

I hope that WPI gets their stuff back. I hope whatever charges are against Judy can go away. I don't think this is entirely in Annette's hands now, because the police are involved. But I hope this can all happen with the least amount of damage to everyone.

For all the pain this has caused for them and patients, I think the ME/CFS cause is better off because of the two of them. They put ME/CFS onto the world stage, and the setbacks with XMRV have not removed it. There are more scientists involved now than before. It's just so unfortunate that the WPI thing has turned into such a mess.

If Pfost is correct then Judy was upset and acted out of that upset - and that's the scenario that makes the most sense to me. I don't see how she felt she could have felt she could complete the research, even if she did feel she was the one to do it (which I imagine she did), unless she had funding for it- which she clearly doesn't. Her taking the notebooks basically meant that the research on CFS at the WPI was damaged in some way. The documents were taken for over a month and only surrenderred after Pfost confessed. If she wanted the data she could have copied the documents and returned them to the WPI. That she didn't do so suggests that she was angry was trying to get back at them.

I suppose she could think that they were totally incompetent but she did work for t hem for two years and Dr. Lombardi was the lead author of the paper - which suggests that he carried out a lions share of the laboratory work - so he should be able to carry the experiments, I would guess..

It's too bad it's gotten to this point for everybody. It hurts Dr. Mikovits (unemployable now?), it hurts the WPI because it makes them look bad (lost alot of patient support) and is expensive to boot (lost money they could have been using for research) and it hurts the patient community (we look like a bit weird).

It is in police departments hands now; they will determine whether to file criminal charges. I have no idea how they decide that - if the WPI's consent is important. The WPI is continuiing on with their Civil lawsuit.

I agree despite all this that we're better off now. I don't know if XMRV did it - it may very well have - but there are more independent research efforts going on now than ever.
 

Firestormm

Senior Member
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Cornwall England
The claim that Mikovits denied having the note books etc because she did not understand the law is just incredible. If she honestly thought that she had the legal right to those materials, she could have been entirely open about having them taken.

I'd be really interested to know what Ruscetti is thinking about all this. What a barmy tale this has become.

Yep 'barmy' indeed. Couldn't make it up! And as for her lawyer.... well one minute he is claiming she doesn't have them (and that the WPI should be looking elsewhere) and then he (and/or another) is claiming she didn't understand the law (and presumably as you say thought she was entitled to them). But she's been getting legal advice! Perhaps her lawyer needs a refresher course. Makes no sense. None whatsoever.
 
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Yep 'barmy' indeed. Couldn't make it up! And as for her lawyer.... well one minute he is claiming she doesn't have them (and that the WPI should be looking elsewhere) and then he (and/or another) is claiming she didn't understand the law (and presumably as you say thought she was entitled to them). But she's been getting legal advice! Perhaps her lawyer needs a refresher course. Makes no sense. None whatsoever.
They're talking about before she had the lawyer.
 

oceanblue

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Yep 'barmy' indeed. Couldn't make it up! And as for her lawyer.... well one minute he is claiming she doesn't have them (and that the WPI should be looking elsewhere) and then he (and/or another) is claiming she didn't understand the law (and presumably as you say thought she was entitled to them). But she's been getting legal advice! Perhaps her lawyer needs a refresher course. Makes no sense. None whatsoever.
Different lawyers. Lois Hart, I think, was representing Judy M in the civil suit and made the claim on Judy's behalf that she didn't have them. Latest statement is from Scott Freeman who is representing her in the criminal case. Goodness knows how many other lawyers are involved.
 

ukxmrv

Senior Member
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4,413
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London
Because there is no proof that Dr Mikovits has done anything criminal or dishonest.

"Innocent until proven guilty" and that will be decided in a Court of Law not on the internet without all the evidence.

I don't understand why people are so eager to insult and judge Dr Mikovits when they do not have all the facts.

You'll need to hope that your questions are answered in court at some stage TessDeco, if you hope to understand what has happened. Posting them here in such an inflamatory matter and with such certainty (i.e. "if Mikovits had simply...") gives people the impression that you know how the WPI would have reacted to things and unless you are from the WPI that is impossible.

We simply do not know what will happen in the future and we certainly don't know what happened here.
 

liquid sky

Senior Member
Messages
371
I still find it really strange that the WPI locked down the lab as soon as they fired Judy, yet they did not lock down Judy's office which contained the notebooks. This whole scenario stinks to me. I do not believe that the WPI is not smart enough to lock down Judy's office.

Has anyone heard if Max has been charged with theft? Or is it only Judy that they want to prosecute?
 

leela

Senior Member
Messages
3,290
Yes, I agree L_Sky.

Plus, I remember quite clearly in the WPI facebook Q&A session Annette stating "Judy has her notebooks" when asked if the notebooks would be returned to her. (That was maybe a week after the firing or something.) This is very odd and means someone, or everyone, has been lying or casting aspersions.

And I too would like to know what has happened to Max. What a horrible position he is in.
 

liquid sky

Senior Member
Messages
371
I remember Annette saying that too. She also stated something about Judy having all her data to defend her paper in Science in regards to the slides being questioned.

So how did the notebooks get back in Judy's desk and then taken by Max? It certainly looks like someone is casting aspersions.

Does anyone know when the court case is scheduled?
 

*GG*

senior member
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Concord, NH
Yes, I agree L_Sky.

Plus, I remember quite clearly in the WPI facebook Q&A session Annette stating "Judy has her notebooks" when asked if the notebooks would be returned to her. (That was maybe a week after the firing or something.) This is very odd and means someone, or everyone, has been lying or casting aspersions.

And I too would like to know what has happened to Max. What a horrible position he is in.

Perhaps the WPI did not consider their notebooks to be hers? Perhaps Judy had some notebooks of her own and the WPi made sure that she left with them with her termination?

Not sure, ony catching this story here and there. FYI

GG
 

taniaaust1

Senior Member
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13,054
Location
Sth Australia
The claim that Mikovits denied having the note books etc because she did not understand the law is just incredible. If she honestly thought that she had the legal right to those materials, she could have been entirely open about having them taken.

I had always thought she may of taken them in the belief that she had a right to them, but as Esther said, it really dont make sense then why she'd lie to her lawyer instead of contesting things and saying they were hers.
I think she's really messed up with not being honest about it all and with doing that, I dont think she's now got a leg to stand on as it appears she did know what she was doing was wrong and intentional.

I cant see her now getting out of this lightly.
 

liquid sky

Senior Member
Messages
371
The whole scenario just does not fit. Judy was fired while away from the WPI. Then, the WPI locks down the lab, but not Judy's office (where everyone knows the notebooks are kept).

I don't see any charges against Max either, yet supposedly he actually stole the property of WPI. I guess it will all come out in the wash. Not.