Wisconsin pharmacist accused of wanting to spoil dozens of vials of COVID-19 vaccine has been charged with attempted felony property crime
MADISON, Delete. – A Wisconsin pharmacist accused of thawing and spoiling dozens of vials of COVID-19 vaccine was charged Tuesday with attempted felony property crime, and prosecutors warned more serious charges could follow if testing turn out that the doses were ruined.
Police arrested Steven Brandenburg, 46, on Dec. 31 as part of an investigation into how 57 vials of the Moderna vaccine were left outside a refrigerator for hours at Advocate Aurora Health in Grafton, a suburb of Milwaukee. The vials contain enough vaccine to inoculate more than 500 people.
Detectives wrote in court documents that Brandenburg is a well-known conspiracy theorist who believed the vaccine would mutate the recipient’s DNA. Experts have said that the claims that COVID-19 vaccines can genetically modify humans are untrue.
According to a criminal complaint, Brandenburg told a detective that he took the bottles out of the refrigerator for three hours on December 24 and then put them back. The next day he took the bottles out of the fridge. This time he left them for nine hours, assuming the vaccine would be ineffective if it wasn’t kept in the refrigerator for 12 hours. But he said a pharmacy technician found the bottles and put them back in the refrigerator.
A Moderna doctor told researchers the vaccine could remain viable at room temperature for 24 hours, the complaint said. Ozaukee County District Attorney Adam Gerol said at the first session of the court in Brandenburg on Tuesday that he is having the doses tested to determine their effectiveness and that more serious charges could be brought if Brandenburg’s actions render the vaccine doses ineffective.
Brandenburg could face up to nine months in prison and a fine of $ 10,000 if convicted of attempted felony. His attorney, Jason Baltz, made an innocent plea on his behalf at the court hearing. Baltz declined to comment when reached by phone before the hearing.
Brandenburg spoke only once and replied “yes sir” when Judge Paul Malloy warned him to abide by his bail terms, which included not working as a pharmacist, dispensing medication and not interacting with Aurora employees.
Malloy settled Brandenburg’s next lawsuit on March 18.
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This story has been corrected to show that Brandenburg was charged with attempted felony property damage, not felony property damage.