Doc cleared in child porn case
Cancer researcher said MD Anderson ‘wasted’ public cash
“They wasted taxpayer dollars,” said the former MD Anderson researcher after his charges were dismissed.
A former MD Anderson Cancer Center scientist accused of possession of child pornography had his case dismissed Wednesday after a Harris County grand jury declined to indict him on charges brought by university police.
Keping Xie, a 56-year-old researcher in pancreatic cancer, resigned from the cancer hospital in April, some three months after University of Texas-Houston police launched their investigation into contents of his work computer. The hospital is part of the UT System. Xie was arrested Aug. 20, on allegations that his computer had five child pornography images and faced a maximum of 10 years in prison if convicted. He vehemently denied the accusations.
On Wednesday, he expressed sadness that so much time and resources were wasted by the hospital administration in trying to build a criminal case against him.
“It’s sad they wasted taxpayer dollars,” he told the Houston Chronicle in an exclusive interview. “They wasted time, time that could be used for cancer research, education and patient care.”
His attorney, Nathan Mays, said Xie is considering filing a lawsuit against the MD Anderson and UT-Houston police for malicious prosecution.
Mays said the criminal case was put together after Xie resigned from he renowned Houston hospital, a resignation the attorney characterized as forced. Xie and his wife, also a cancer researcher, left MD Anderson for the University of Arizona, intending to take four National Institute of Health grants that totaled $12 million.
Those grants typically follow the researcher, not the institution, Mays said.
Mays alleged it was because of those grants that the hospital’s police force filed reports to get Xie charged.
“They acted with intent to damage Dr. Xie’s professional reputation,” Mays said. “And ultimately impaired and hindered his ability to conduct the extremely important research that he does and has done for 28 years.”
Officials with MD Anderson released a statement with the UTHouston police department saying they had a duty to turn over the information.
“As with any case involving suspected images of child pornography, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has legal and ethical obligations to turn over such images to authorities,” saidthe statement. “We appreciate the District Attorney’s efforts in pursing these charges, and we respect the Grand Jury’s decision.”
Even though he is considering litigation against the institution, Xie left open the possibility of returning to MD Anderson because of his long history there and deep friendships with colleagues.
“I would like to go back to MD Anderson,” he said. “I have been an advocate for MD Anderson for as long as I can remember, 28 years. So, I have a lot of work to do and I would like to go back.”
In July, after the charges were filed, Xie was placed on administrative leave at the University of Arizona, where he’d been hired as chairman of the department of interdisciplinary oncology. In October, he was dismissed.
Mays contends that the contract was rescinded because MD Anderson never transferred Xie’s grant money to the University of Arizona. MD Anderson is currently working with the NIH to either reassign the grant to another researcher at the Houston cancer center or to return them to the agency.
Contending that Xie’s contract at the University of Arizona still guarantees employment there, Mays said Xie may have to sue to regain that job.
University of Arizona officials declined to comment on the situation.
Instead of blaming the Harris County District Attorney’s Office for charging Xie, Mays said he blamed the UT-Houston police force, who submitted reports that prosecutors relied on to charge Xie with the felony offense last summer.
“The district attorney’s office was not fully informed when they filed charges,” Mays said.
The DA’s office confirmed the charges were dismissed but said little else.
“Every bit of evidence was presented to grand jurors, and with their vote, the community has determined that criminal charges are not warranted,” DA spokesman Dane Schiller said.
Typically under Texas law, police officers file charges against suspects and the DA’s office accepts those charges. Then, within 90 days, a grand jury reviews the information in secret to make sure there is enough evidence to go forward and hands down an indictment. In a few rare cases, like Xie’s, the grand jury decides there is not enough evidence and signs a “no-bill,” which results in a dismissal.
The case began in January, when a computer security officer, using a program to monitor what Xie was doing on his MD Anderson computer, saw the researcher appear to alter a restaurant receipt using Photoshop.
He referred the matter to the UT-Houston police to investigate as a possible case of tampering with a government record, which is typically a misdemeanor.
Xie agreed to cooperate with the investigation and consented to a search where police took more than 80 electronic devices out of his home and lab, including laptops and external hard drives, Mays said. UT-Houston police arranged to have a judge sign a warrant at 1 a.m. to search Xie’s computers in case he refused, his attorney said.
That data, about 40 terabytes, contained years of test results and other work, including those of his assistants.
UT police hired an outside firm to conduct a forensic investigation of the data as part of their investigation of tampering with a government record. In March, that firm notified UT police that they suspected five images to be known child pornography, although they were not able to determine how the images were downloaded to the computer. The police at UT took that report to the Internet Crimes Against Children unit at the Houston Police Department, according to a sworn affidavit filed by the police with the charges.
But HPD did not seek charges and instead sent the case back to the UT police department. It was an unusual move, Mays said, because HPD typically arrest suspects once child pornography is detected.
In June, the UT police got another search warrant to search Xie’s computers again but found nothing new, according to court documents. Two months later, after Xie had moved to Arizona with his grant money, he was arrested.
After Xie was arrested, there were anonymously sourced reports that the FBI was investigating the cancer researcher for possible espionage on behalf of China. Xie denied the allegation, and Mays called it “ludicrous.”
“They acted with intent to damage Dr. Xie’s professional reputation. And ultimately impaired and hindered his ability to conduct the extremely important research that he does and has done for 28 years.” Nathan Mays, lawyer of researcher Keping Xie