Attorney tries to throw out puffer fish toxin indictment

The Lake in the Hills man charged with possessing the deadly puffer fish poison is asking a federal court to dismiss the indictment against him, claiming the toxin cannot be weaponized and he had the right to have it.

The claims are among a flurry of motions filed Tuesday by the defense for Edward F. Bachner, who faces up to life in prison if found guilty of a 10-count indictment alleging he intended to use the lethal tetrodotoxin (TTX) as a weapon.

Bachner, who has remained in federal custody without bond since his arrest, has denied the charges.

Motions filed this week also ask a judge to bar incriminating statements Bachner, 35, made to FBI agents after his June 30 arrest, claiming agents interrogated him without a lawyer and repeatedly called him a "terrorist or murderer."

"The interrogators overreached when the denied Bachner's requests for an attorney, held him from the magistrate judge for over six and one-half hours, threatened him with accusations that he was either a terrorist of a murderer and promised to release him if he told them what happened to the TTX," defense lawyer James Marcus states in one of the filings.

Federal authorities arrested Bachner after the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force raided his home and said they found 45 full or partially full vials of tetrodotoxin, along with evidence Bachner had obtained at least 19 more vials that were missing.

Prosecutors say agents also found a handgun, more than 50 knives, five garrotes, a phony CIA badge, a precursor to the poison ricin and books on how to poison people, make gun silencers and hand-to-hand combat.

Authorities say Bachner obtained the toxin by posing as a doctor doing medical research.

The motion to dismiss the indictment argues that Bachner acquired the toxin as a "principal investigator" for his own research project and therefore was allowed to possess less than 100 milligrams of it. Although Bachner's previous work experience had been in telecommunications, the motion states that federal law does not require any specific education, training or experience to qualify as a principal investigator.

The motion also argues that because of its fragility, it would have been impossible for Bachner to weaponize TTX.

"From publicly available information it is easily determined that TTX is incapable of being used as a weapon not only because it is difficult to produce and has low lethality, but because of three major issues," Marcus states, listing those issues as its sensitivity to humidity, its need to be kept cool, if not frozen, and its brief shelf life.

Much of the TTX seized, Marcus states, was not refrigerated, leaving it degraded and nonfunctional.

Bachner is scheduled to appear in court on the charges Thursday, though it is unlikely a judge will take up the motions until federal prosecutors have time to respond on writing.