Whittemores cause arrest of Mikovits

[Guest guest]

Whittemores cause arrest of Mikovits

November 18, 2011

The Whittemores have caused Judy Mikovits to

be arrested today. Max has not been heard from

for 48 hours and Amy, who also works in the

lab, is also missing. They are key witnesses in

Dr. Mikovits' defense.

Such tactics are outrageous! Dr. Mikovits is now

represented by counsel and authorities could

easily have contacted them in order to resolve

the matter.

Lilly Meehan was met at the door by police

officers with a search warrant, and her home was

searched from the attic down. This is a

outrageous abuse of process.

It is very hard to imagine the depth to which the

Whittemores are willing to go, while they

continue to make public posts and threaten

patients with libel and other threats. It sounds

like extortion to me. They are trying to silence

patients.

THEY WILL NOT SILENCE ME!!!

PS: Isn't it interesting that this is happening

just before Dr. Mikovits is scheduled to speak

at Dr. Enlander's meeting on Sunday.

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bakercape

Re: Whittemores cause arrest of Mikovits

This is a powerful family. It has been reported

they have gotten enviromental protection areas

changed for endangered species and weakened

laws for worker rights in the state of nevada

through lobbying influence wirh the state

legislature.

Do not underestimate that politics can and has

influence the law and legal process many times

and continues to do so in this nation.

I don't know if it has here but let's not be naive

that it does happen in this country especially the

more local the politics becomes.

-----

bigbluefeeling

Another fact to add to facts thread .

As for arresting people if they're so powerful

couldn't they arrest Reeves and Wessely?!

Pretty please.

This is just getting more bizarre. How the

Whittemore's can think any good can come from

this (and beyond that, enough good to offset the

harm already done) is impossible to figure...

What they get out of having police rifle through

Lily's house is... what?! It's just ridiculous and

unjust and again this would totally make me

relapse big time. Sending good wishes to Lilly

also.

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ScienceInsider

November 2011

Controversial CFS

Researcher Arrested and Jailed

by Jon Cohen

19 November 2011

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 a 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 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, November 19, 7:39pm EST:

Annette Whittemore, president of the Whittemore

Institute, has issued the following

statement:

" The Whittemore 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. "