DOJ’s pardon attorney Ed Martin hit with ethics charges

(NEW YORK) — The American doctor who was on the MV Hondius cruise ship and initially tested positive for hantavirus has since tested negative and says “there’s no evidence that I’ve had hantavirus.”

A doctor from the biocontainment unit in Nebraska said the initial test was most likely a falsely positive, based on further testing.

Dr. Stephen Kornfeld — the only American to test positive for hantavirus — came down with flu-like symptoms on the cruise ship, and on Monday he was admitted to the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s biocontainment unit following a positive test, officials said.

The Bend, Oregon, resident has since tested negative and was cleared to relocate to Nebraska’s quarantine unit, where 15 other passengers from the cruise ship who do not have symptoms are being monitored.

“I physically feel great — I have felt great for many, many days,” Kornfeld told ABC News. “Emotionally I feel wonderful. It’s nice to be negative for hantavirus.”

The medical director of Nebraska’s biocontainment unit, Dr. Angela Hewlett, told ABC News’ Victor Oquendo, “I suspect that the initial test was a false positive.”

“If we had seen evidence of previous exposure or previous infection to hantavirus with our serology test, then that would have been a little more indicative of maybe he had had an illness and he was fortunately getting better,” Hewlett explained. “We didn’t see any evidence of that and so it looks like he has not had this illness at all thus far.”

Kornfeld said the initial test was taken after he came down with a flu-like illness on the ship.

“I got sick just a few days after the gentleman who had hantavirus got sick — he ultimately passed away from it. And my illness certainly wasn’t as severe, but it was a typical viral illness with sweats and fatigue and cough, sore throat, and a lot of upper respiratory symptoms,” he said. “I just attributed it to the ship flu, and I think in retrospect, it was.”

“I’m fairly confident he never had hantavirus, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t necessarily have an exposure,” Hewlett said.

“In fact, I had a lot of exposure when I was the ship’s doctor,” Kornfeld said. “I’m still in the incubation period. The virus may still be in me and I may develop symptoms of the virus.”

He said he is following protocol by isolating himself in Nebraska’s quarantine unit.

“I will keep track of my symptoms,” he said. “And if I get any symptoms, then I’ll be tested. Because getting new symptoms does not mean it’s hantavirus — I could come down with another virus, like a cold or something similar.”

Kornfeld said he is weighing whether to complete the entire 42-day quarantine in Nebraska or to finish from his home in Oregon. If he does go home, he said it would not be on a commercial aircraft.

“I think everybody in this unit is sort of having that discussion with their own health system and with their family. Some will probably stay here the entire time, some may ultimately go home,” he said.

“I’m thinking that I may eventually want to go home … it would be very safe to send us home and then we could complete the quarantine in a much more familiar situation,” he said, adding, “everybody here is committed to completing their quarantine.”

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(BURBANK, Calif.) — A man is in custody for allegedly stabbing a woman to death and stabbing and wounding her daughter, according to authorities in Los Angeles County, California.

Officers responded around 6 a.m. Monday, to a house in Burbank where they found two women suffering from stab wounds, Burbank police said.

The mother, 59-year-old Arti Varma, who taught first-grade in Burbank, died at the hospital, police said.

Her 25-year-old daughter was hospitalized in stable condition, police said. Authorities did not release the daughter’s name, but a neighbor identified her as Meera Varma, a nationally recognized mental health activist, according to Los Angeles ABC station KABC.

Detectives identified 30-year-old Sergio Fraire as a person of interest, and on Monday night, officers served a search warrant at a Burbank home where he was believed to be staying, police said.

Fraire was apprehended and arrested for murder and attempted murder, police said.

“The relationship, if any, between the suspect and the victims remains under investigation, as does the motive,” police said in a statement on Tuesday.

Authorities noted that “evidence related to the crime was recovered,” but they did not elaborate on the potential evidence.

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(PHOENIX, Ariz.) — The man who was detained and released after being questioned in connection with the abduction of Today show anchor Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy Guthrie, says it was “terrifying.”

The man, who said he works in Tucson and delivers packages for a living, said he was detained in a traffic stop in Rio Rico, according to ABC Phoenix affiliate station KNXV, which spoke to him after his encounter with law enforcement. 

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said on Tuesday they had detained a “subject” in connection with the investigation. 

When asked about what happened, the man who spoke with KNXV said it was a “terrifying” experience and that authorities “didn’t tell me anything at the beginning.”

When asked if he delivered a package to Nancy Guthrie’s home, the man said, “I don’t know. Might have been a possibility. I don’t know.”

“I was detained the whole time,” he told KNXV. “I was being questioned, but they only asked me for my first name, my last name, my date of birth and my social.”

The man whom officials detained had been on the radar of the FBI and Pima County Sheriff’s Department regarding Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance prior to the public release on Tuesday of the images of a masked subject at Nancy Guthrie’s front door, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

The individual, who identified himself as Carlos, was detained for questioning in Rio Rico after the FBI identified him using a series of electronic investigative tools, including cellphone usage information and traffic data, the sources said, without specifying the exact techniques. 

A local judge from Santa Cruz County, Arizona, signed the warrant for the search of the man’s house, which was carried out overnight. He was questioned for several hours before being released without charge and is under no law enforcement restrictions, according to the sources.

Separately, investigators are studying every pixel of the new video the FBI released publicly on Tuesday to try to find any identifying feature, including the apparent weapon and characteristics of what the subject was wearing, according to the sources.

“In high-profile cases, these type of leads are typical,” retired FBI agent Brad Garrett told Good Morning America Wednesday. “It may happen again because it’s the type of tips you get. But having said that, it’s the type of tips that will resolve this case.”

Investigators also descended upon a home where a court-authorized search was conducted and a woman claiming to be the homeowner says someone called in a tip reporting Nancy Guthrie was there.

“You can go in and search my house. There’s nobody there. I have nothing to hide,” the woman told KNXV. “There’s nobody in my house and I don’t know what’s going on.”

She told reporters her son-in-law was the person detained by police but insisted he had nothing to do with Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.

The developments followed the first images released of a masked man approaching Nancy Guthrie’s front door and as investigators continued to search in her neighborhood.

The images showed someone wearing a mask, gloves, a backpack and armed with a holstered handgun at the front door of Nancy Guthrie’s Tucson-area home around the time investigators suspect she was abducted on Feb. 1.

Savannah Guthrie later posted the images to her Instagram account, with the message, “We believe she is still alive. Bring her home.”

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