Calabasas Man Is Convicted in Anthrax Scare

LOS ANGELES —  A Calabasas accountant who phoned in an anthrax threat to avoid a Bankruptcy Court hearing was convicted by a federal judge Tuesday of threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction. Harvey Craig Spelkin, 53, had waived his right to a jury trial before U.S. District Court Judge George H. King.

Spelkin now faces a possible life term in federal prison when he is sentenced by George on July 26.

“Unfortunately, the defendant took a very dangerous step to try to avoid going to court,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Andre Birotte, Jr. “The hope is that this conviction will send a message to others, and that this kind of crime will be taken seriously and investigated and prosecuted.”

Spelkin confessed to making an anonymous telephone call to a court employee last Dec. 18 at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Woodland Hills. He told the worker that anthrax, a deadly biotoxin, had been released into the building’s air-conditioning system.

The threat forced the evacuation and closure of the courthouse.

A court clerk, aware that Spelkin had delayed a series of bankruptcy hearings, identified him to authorities as a possible suspect. Spelkin later admitted to the FBI that he had phoned in the threat to put off the hearing, in which he was accused of embezzling more than $100,000 from a former employer.