A genetics professor who became embroiled in a controversial case involving the prosecution of an artist has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.

Professor Robert Ferrell, former chairman of the University of Pittsburgh’s Human Genetics Department, copped a plea on October 11 to a misdemeanor charge of failing to follow proper procedures in the mailing of bacteria. He had been charged with four felony counts of fraud for allegedly supplying Steven Kurtz, art professor at SUNY-Buffalo, with supplies for an avant-garde art project. (See “Artists Protest Investigation of Steven Kurtz,” June 26, 2004, McCarthyism Watch.) Kurtz, part of the Critical Art Ensemble, was putting together an exhibit showcasing the dangers of bioengineered food.

Ferrell has been in ill health, which may have played a part in his plea.

“From the beginning, this has been a persecution, not a prosecution,” said Dr. Dianne Raeke Ferrell, his wife. “Bob is a 27-year survivor of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which has recurred numerous times. He has also had malignant melanoma. Since this whole nightmare began, Bob has had two minor strokes and a major stroke.”

Their daughter, Gentry Chandler Ferrell, also gave a statement on the plea. “Our family has struggled with an intense uncertainty about physical, emotional, and financial health,” she said. “Agreeing to a plea deal is a small way for dad to try to eliminate one of those uncertainties and hold on a little longer to the career he worked so hard to develop.” She condemned “the absurdity of the government’s pursuit of this case.”

The government is still prosecuting Kurtz.

And the case is a subject of a new film, “Strange Culture.”