Univ. of Tennesee Prof. Trial Continues - Defense Dept Secrets Shared

The trial of Prof. Emeritus J.R. Roth continues, with the firm he worked for and held ownership in, being held to scrutiny today in court.

The extent of involvement of Atmospheric Glow Technologies (AGT) in suppressing knowledge of using foreign national students in research for a light weight flight control system to be used on military drone aircraft was brought out in court today. The original story with many of the details of Dr. Roth's involvement can be found here. In court today the management of AGT was blamed by physicist Daniel Max Sherman, a former student of Dr Roth, as having used threats against him to encourage Mr Sherman to not alert the Air Force regarding the use of the foreign national students in the research project.

"I was basically threatened if I did so, I would not be provided legal representation," the unemployed physicist testified.

Admitting that he too lied to federal authorities in the early stages of the probe, Sherman said he did so at AGT's urging.

It has been alleged in court the University of Tennessee (UT) Arms Control Export Act officer, Robin Witherspoon, had alerted Roth to the violation when Roth complained about the Iranian student not being allowed to work on the project, while the Chinese student had been allowed access to the research. Sherman had already pleaded guilty previously, but had pointed the finger at AGT management for dissuading him from alerting both UT and the Air Force earlier.

"It just did not seem appropriate to allow him to participate," said Sherman in noting the U.S. government's ongoing political strife with Iran.

The issue of Professor thumbing his nose at the provisions made to safeguard the research may prove pivotal in his trial. The court does have the ability to sentence 70 year old Dr. Roth to 160 years in prison with a fine of $1.5 million. One possible miscarriage of justice in this case may be the complete absence of any real method of punishing the company AGT, due to their having since declared bankruptcy.