Theft Prozac Withdrawal 06/06/2003 Connecticut Library Worker Steals $2M in Rare Books
Summary:
This article reads: "[Johnson} had stopped taking a large dose of Prozac before the thefts started".
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20030606_1322.html
Former Yale Worker Jailed in Bomb Probe Former Yale Library Worker Jailed in Connection With May 21 Bombing at University
The Associated Press
NEW HAVEN, Conn. June 6 ? Investigators looking into last month's bombing at Yale Law School searched the home of a former library worker who was previously convicted of stealing rare books and documents from Yale.Benjamin Johnson, 23, was jailed Wednesday after federal agents searched his parents' house in suburban Hamden, where he had been on supervised release. Officials refused to say why they revoked his release.
Johnson pleaded guilty in 2001 to stealing $2 million worth of rare books and papers from Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and then selling them over the Internet.The library is across the street from Yale Law School, where a May 21 explosion damaged some rooms but caused no injuries.Authorities Friday would not say what they were looking for at Johnson's house or whether they found anything linking him to the bombing.His lawyer, Penn Rhodeen, said Johnson had nothing to do with the bombing and has no grudge against Yale, which he said has treated Johnson fairly."What you have is a situation where people decided he would be a logical person to think about in connection with some other investigation they have in mind. They have to do their jobs," Rhodeen said.During Johnson's regular meeting with his parole officer, the officer found a notebook in Johnson's backpack that contained notes about explosives, Rhodeen said.Rhodeen said that Johnson, an aspiring writer, would often jot down "exciting passages" from thriller novels as he read them. Rhodeen said he had not seen the notebook in question, but he had seen another notebook Johnson kept that had such notes in it.Johnson is cooperating fully with investigators, Rhodeen said, and has not returned to the Yale campus since his sentencing.Johnson began serving a 15-month sentence in June 2002 for larceny convictions related to the thefts.At the sentencing, Rhodeen said Johnson had a long-standing psychiatric illness and had stopped taking a large dose of Prozac before the thefts started.Johnson was in prison until February, when he moved to a New Haven halfway house. He was allowed to enter a transitional supervision program that allowed him to return home with his parents. After Wednesday's search, correction officers decided to revoke that privilege, but declined to say why.