Ex-hospital employee guilty of trying to ruin vaccine

A former Grafton pharmacist on Tuesday pleaded guilty in federal court to charges that he tried to spoil more than 500 doses of Covid-19 vaccine and was released on bond while awaiting sentencing.

Federal prosecutors charged Steven Brandenburg, 46, of Grafton, in January with two counts of attempting to tamper with consumer products. He pleaded guilty to both counts during a video conference with U.S. District Court in Milwaukee.

The charges carry a maximum combined sentence of 20 years in prison and $500,000 in fines. 

According to a plea agreement, however, prosecutors agreed to recommend to Judge Brett Ludwig that he sentence Brandenburg to at least three years and five months and at most four years and three months in prison in exchange for his guilty pleas. 

Ludwig is not bound by the recommendation.

Brandenburg is scheduled to be sentenced on June 8.

In court documents, prosecutors asked Ludwig to keep Brandenburg in jail until sentencing, arguing that he holds extremist views, including that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were faked, the Earth is flat and vaccines are “of the Devil.” 

He also brought guns in a suitcase to his job at Advocate Aurora Health, they wrote.

Brandenburg also secretly substituted saline for flu vaccine and persuaded other co-workers to do the same thing, according to court filings.

Brandenburg’s attorney, Jason Baltz, argued that his client is no longer in a position to tamper with medications because he was fired in December from his job as a pharmacist at Advocate Aurora Health Center in Grafton and his pharmacist license has been revoked.

He also turned his guns over to the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office as a condition of bail in an Ozaukee County court case, Baltz pointed out.

Ludwig said holding “crazy” views isn’t a basis for keeping someone in jail, but ordered Brandenburg to submit to GPS monitoring until sentencing and to undergo a mental health evaluation.

Police arrested Brandenburg on Dec. 31 after he confessed to removing 57 vials of the Moderna vaccine from refrigeration units on Dec. 24 and Dec. 25 and leaving them unrefrigerated for eight and 12 hours, respectively.

Before what he did was discovered, 57 people received doses of the vaccine.

The vials contained enough vaccine to inoculate more than 500 people.

Aurora initially said the vaccine had been rendered useless but later tests performed by Moderna showed it was still effective.

In January, Brandenburg pleaded not guilty in Ozaukee County Circuit Court to attempted criminal damage to property, a misdemeanor for which he could be sentenced up to six months in the county jail and fined $10,000.

Ozaukee County District Attorney Adam Gerol has indicated the county charge may be dropped in light of the federal case.

Brandenburg is free in the Ozaukee County case on a $10,000 signature bond. 

Besides surrendering his firearms, he was ordered by Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Paul Malloy to have no contact with Aurora or any of its employees.

He is due in Ozaukee County Circuit Court on March 18.