It began the day Kurtz’s wife died of a heart attack on May 11, 2004. When the police and paramedics came, they found some supplies of Kurtz’s they thought were suspicious. He was using some bacteria cultures for an exhibit demonstrating the dangers of biotechnology.

Steve Kurtz is finally, totally, in the clear.

The art professor from SUNY-Buffalo survived four years of felony charges in a bizarre case.

It began the day Kurtz’s wife died of a heart attack on May 11, 2004. When the police and paramedics came, they found some supplies of Kurtz’s they thought were suspicious. He was using some bacteria cultures for an exhibit demonstrating the dangers of biotechnology.

Soon he was arrested.

Prosecutors suggested he may have been involved in terrorism, but ultimately he was charged with mail and wire fraud, which still could have cost him 20 years in prison.

On April 21, a judge dismissed the case, saying it was “insufficient on its face.”

The government had 30 days to appeal, and it chose not to, and announced that it would not file additional charges against Kurtz.

After the government dropped the case, Kurtz asked: “As an innocent man, where do I go to get the four years the Department of Justice stole from me? As a taxpayer, where do I go to get back the millions of dollars the FBI and Justice Department wasted persecuting me? And as a citizen, what must I do to have a Justice Department free of partisan corruption so profound it has turned on those it is sworn to protect?”