Cousin of man charged in ricin incident pleads not guilty

Tuesday, April 29, 2008 | 12:08 p.m.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) _ A Riverton man accused of failing to report that deadly ricin was being made in his basement said he didn't call authorities because he feared his cousin and didn't want anyone to find the weapons and explosive devices stored down there, according to court documents.

Thomas Tholen, 54, pleaded not guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court to a felony count of knowing about a crime but failing to report it.

"It's a crime to know about it, do nothing about it and conceal it," prosecutor John Huber said outside court. "There was a several-day period when lawmen were put off the trail."

Tholen's cousin, Roger Bergendorff, is charged in Las Vegas with possessing a biological toxin. He was in a hospital for two months after authorities suspect he was poisoned by ricin.

Tholen, who had gone to Bergendorff's motel several blocks off the Las Vegas Strip, turned over vials containing about 4 grams of "crude" powdered ricin from Bergendorff's room there to FBI agents.

Huber said Tholen later gave FBI agents ``considerable information."

Magistrate Paul Warner set a trial date for July 7. Tholen was released without bail.

Huber said Bergendorff is accused of making the ricin at Tholen's house in the Salt Lake City suburb of Riverton and that traces of the material were found inside a storage locker, from which a search warrant says authorities confiscated lab equipment.

The manufacture or possession of ricin is prohibited by federal law.

Tholen, a freelance artist who creates characters for video games, didn't report Bergendorff's activities, even after Bergendorff moved out, because both men had weapons and explosive devices in the basement and the storage unit, according to an FBI affidavit.

In Tholen's house, authorities seized blasting caps, military flares, smoke grenades, demolition fuses, a kitchen grinder and a bag of marbles, according to the search warrant that was unsealed Tuesday. There was no explanation for any of the items.

"It had nothing to do with ricin production," Tholen's attorney, Greg Skordas, said outside court. "And a lot of that stuff is 30 or 40 years old."

The only legal use for ricin is cancer research. Huber said an amount no larger than the head of a pin could kill a person.

FBI agent Scott Rogers underscored the danger of ricin in his affidavit for a search warrant. Rogers said Bulgarian intelligence operatives fired a ricin-tipped bullet from an umbrella in 1978 at a dissident, Gregori Markov, who died a day later.

Bergendorff, 57, told a judge at his April 16 arraignment in Las Vegas that he was no criminal and that he believed he was incapable of ever deploying the deadly poison. "I didn't use that stuff," he hoarsely insisted from a wheelchair, "because I couldn't."

Tholen told investigators that, fearing for his safety, he kicked Bergendorff out of his house after 15 months in April 2006.

He said Bergendorff was making ricin at the same time he was expressing anger at people he believed had wronged him, according to court papers.

An unemployed graphic artist, Bergendorff was indigent and receiving Mormon church welfare. After Tholen kicked him out, a neighbor gave Bergendorff a place to stay for six months. He then moved to Las Vegas, where the church paid his rent at an Extended Stay America room, the affidavit says.

Skordas said authorities charged Tholen because they felt he was initially "holding back" information. But Skordas maintained that Tholen was as "honest, truthful and forthcoming" as could be, and that he invited authorities to search his house.

"This is a man who never had a brush with the law," Skordas said. "Now he's charged with a felony."