Finally some sanity…

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April 21, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JUDGE DISMISSES MAIL FRAUD CASE AGAINST BIO-ARTIST KURTZ

Buffalo, NY—A process that has taken nearly four years may be coming to an end. On Monday, April 21, Federal Judge Richard J. Arcara ruled to dismiss the indictment against University at Buffalo Professor of Visual Studies Dr. Steven Kurtz.

In June 2004, Professor Kurtz was charged with two counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud stemming from an exchange of $256 worth of harmless bacteria with Dr. Robert Ferrell, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

Dr. Kurtz planned to use the bacteria in an educational art exhibit about biotechnology with his award-winning art and theater collective, Critical Art Ensemble.

Professor Kurtz’ lawyer, Paul Cambria, said that his client was “pleased and relieved that this ordeal may be coming to an end.”

The prosecution has the right to appeal this dismissal. How the prosecution will proceed is unknown at this time. If an appeal were undertaken the case would move to the New York Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City.

Lucia Sommer, Coordinator of the CAE Defense Fund, which raises funds for Kurtz’ legal defense, said, “We are all grateful that after reviewing this case, Judge Arcara took appropriate action.” She added that “this decision is further testament to our original statements that Dr. Kurtz is completely innocent and never should have been charged in the first place.” permanent link to this post

Stolen wholesale from the NYT:

Yale University said on Monday that it would not allow a senior to participate in a campus art exhibition unless she made a written statement that her “performance,” in which she repeatedly inseminated herself and then induced miscarriages, was a fiction that she had concocted. In an article on Thursday in The Yale Daily News, the student, Aliza Shvarts, right, was quoted as saying that she had inseminated herself “as often as possible” over several months while taking herbal drugs to induce miscarriages, which she recorded on video to display for her senior-year art project at a show beginning on campus on Tuesday. Her claim drew intense criticism. Yale said last week that Ms. Shvarts had told three university officials that she had not inseminated herself or induced abortions but had made up the story as part of the project. On Friday, however, Ms. Shvarts insisted she had really experienced “repeated, self-induced miscarriages,” although she said that she had not known if she was actually pregnant. Yale officials said the denials were part of the continuing art performance, and on Monday demanded that it end. Peter Salovey, the dean of Yale College, and Robert Storr, dean of the School of Art, also said that they had found “serious errors of judgment” on the part of Ms. Shvarts’s adviser and an art instructor who knew of the project. They did not identify the adviser or instructor, though Ms. Shvarts has said that her adviser was Pia Lindman. Mr. Salovey said that “appropriate action” had been taken against the two teachers, but did not elaborate. Neither Ms. Shvarts nor Ms. Lindman could be reached for comment.

Me? Ambivalent about it… permanent link to this post