WASHINGTON - The government has finally nailed Dr. Steven J. Hatfill.
The former Army bioterrorism expert and current "person of interest" in the FBI's investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks was convicted yesterday in a District of Columbia traffic court of "walking to create a hazard," an offense that occurred in May when an FBI surveillance truck ran over his foot.
The pedestrian ticket will cost Hatfill $5.
Bryan Blankenship, the FBI employee behind the wheel of the bureau's black Dodge Durango that day, was not charged in the incident. No FBI personnel or any other witnesses appeared at the half-hour hearing.
But the driver's actions were "irrelevant" to the charge, said Stephen Lawson, the hearing officer for the District's Department of Motor Vehicles.
"At the point when the respondent [Hatfill] stepped into the roadway, where he was not protected by a crosswalk - at that point the violation was complete," he said, upholding the charge and the fine.
Flanked by his two lawyers, Hatfill pulled some crumpled bills from his pocket and walked toward the cashiers' windows to pay his fine. But, put off by long lines, he decided to mail in a check instead, and headed for a gaggle of reporters and TV cameras waiting outside.
Hatfill, dressed in a dark blue suit and red tie, stood back while his lead attorney, Thomas G. Connolly, took the opportunity to attack the FBI again for an "unrelenting campaign of harassment" against his client "for no legitimate reason."
That campaign left Hatfill "writhing in pain on the streets of the district," Connolly said, "and a [Washington] police officer writes him a ticket. And, of course, the FBI agent who ran him down received nothing - no ticket, no violation."
Hatfill, he said, has done nothing to deserve such scrutiny by the FBI or the news media, Connolly said. "All he asks is to be left alone," the attorney said.
He is likely to ask for more than that, however. Hatfill is expected to file a lawsuit targeting the FBI, some news media and others for actions that he says have "destroyed" his life.
The FBI has never charged anyone with sending the mysterious, anthrax-laced letters mailed to U.S. senators and news organizations in the weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The letters killed five people and sickened at least 17.
