Bail denied in McHenry Co. fish toxin case

A federal judge in northern Illinois has again denied bail for a man charged with unlawfully acquiring and keeping a deadly puffer fish toxin.

Judge Frederick Kapala says he isn't convinced Edward Bachner IV of Lake in the Hills doesn't pose a threat. Kapala has made several similar rulings.

Bachner recently tried to explain items found in his Lake in the Hills home. Defense attorney James Marcus says a manual that provides doses for poisoning people was merely a reference book for crime novelists.

Bachner is accused of acquiring tetrodotoxin in 2006 to use as a weapon. Investigators say he posed as a medical researcher to order the toxin, which is 1,200 times more deadly than cyanide.

Bachner has pleaded not guilty.