Man pleads guilty to not reporting cousin’s ricin

SALT LAKE CITY -- A Utah man accused of failing to report that his cousin produced and possessed the deadly poison ricin has pleaded guilty to the felony criminal charge.

In a deal with prosecutors for leniency, Thomas Tholen pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony -- knowing about a crime but failing to report it.

The 54-year-old Tholen appeared Monday in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City. Federal prosecutor John Huber recommended three years of probation for Tholen. Sentencing is set for Oct. 22.

His cousin, Roger Bergendorff, pleaded guilty Aug. 4 to federal possession of a biological toxin and weapons charges, but denied any criminal intent and said he never intentionally or accidentally released any of the lethal powder.

Bergendorff told the Associated Press on Monday that he could not be certain he told Tholen he had a batch of ricin while living at Tholen's house in the Salt Lake City suburb of Riverton from February 2005 to May 2006.

"I think so. I may have told him," Bergendorff said in a phone interview from the North Las Vegas jail where he has been held since April.

Bergendorff, 57, will be sentenced Nov. 3. He is expected to get three years and a month in federal prison, according to terms of his plea agreement.

Last Friday, Bergendorff said that he distilled the lethal powder in 1998 while living in San Diego from the beans of a backyard castor plant, and carried it with him for a decade while living in Reno, Salt Lake City and Las Vegas.

Police and prosecutors have cast Bergendorff as a troubled man who acted alone, and they have said the case was not linked to terrorism. Bergendorff has offered no explanation for making the ricin.

Ricin is a biological toxin that prevents cells from making proteins and can cause organ failure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its only legal use is for cancer research.