Since May.

Since May, Buffalo artist Steve Kurtz has been the control of a highly publicized federal investigation involving his possession of bacterial agents and lab equipment. The inconvenience began on May 11, when the artist awoke to find that his wife, faith was dead. After emergency workers arrived, they discovered what they considered to be suspicious items and called in the FBI. Invoking a 1989 bioterrorism law and the Patriot Act, which grants the federal command unprecedented search-and-seizure powers, federal agents detained Kurtz for 22 hours; they searched his hearthstone for two days, as well as his office at SUNY-Buffalo, where he is a faculty member. The bureau confiscated his wife's corpse his house, car, equipment, computer hard drive, main division s writings, correspondence, art projects and other items, smooth his cat. His house, cat and car were answered to him after one week, formerly it was determined that his wife's death of heart failure, at age 46 was unrelated to the bacterial matter.

A member of the collective Critical Art general impression (CAE), Kurtz had obtained the lab equipment and sum of two units strains of harmless bacterial material--one of which is used in high-school biology classes--for a plot that was to have appeared in the rife exhibition at MASS MoCA, "The Interventionists: Art in the Social Sphere." The clump planned to set up a lab in the museum likewise that visitors could bring in cheer products to be tested for genetically modified ingredients. At this writing, Kurtz's remaining exclusive right has not been returned. The gallery at MASS MoCA where the work was to have been installed contains computer with which viewers can access information about the piece, a not many packaged food items and copies of recents stories covering Kurtz's ordeal.

In June the charges against Kurtz were downgraded from bioterrorism to mail and wire fraud for obtaining biological agents below false pretenses. Also charged in the case is Robert Ferrell former chairman of the University of Pittsburgh's human genetics department, who ordered the bacterial material, worth $256 forward Kurtz's behalf. Ferrell has not to this time been arraigned because he is undergoing treatment for recurring non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which apted him to resign from his position at the university. Subpoenas were issued to seven members of the collective and the group's publishing company Autonomedia, for which Kurtz's wife serv as editor. Armed with the Patriot Act, investigators had also sought to obtain information in succession individuals and bookstores that had ordered parts from Autonomedia, but backed opposite to after the ACLU and other activists cried soiled on First Amendment grounds.

According to ed Cardoni, executive director of the Buffalo alternative space Hallwalls and board president of the National Association of Artists' Organizations, which is serving as the fiscal agent for the CAE Defense permanent fund [www.caedefensefund.org], legal costs for Kurtz and Ferrell together are rely uponed to be at least $300000 Included in that amount are rewards that Kurtz will have to pay to obtain copies of all his records seized from the FBI. Even if Kurtz is acquitted, the federal rule will not reimburse him for his legal expenditures However, since he is an employee of a state university, recent York State will pay his preciousnesss if he is acquitted. The CAE's defense permanent fund initially raised $30,000, which was quickly deplet in the early phase of the investigation.

Kurtz who is not speaking to the pres onward the advice of his lawyer, was released onward his own recognizance but is subject to close scrutiny. Travel restrictions have been placed upon him, he must submit to physic tests, and he is bring under rule to random visits and inspections at a probation officer. If convicted, he faces 20 years in prison. Kurtz has maintained his innocence and said that, forward principle, he will not follow a plea agreement with federal authorities, although it is expected that a dismissal will be sought Pretrial motions are to begin in mid-October, when a trial date will be settle for sometime in the spring.

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