Johnny Diaz

The instructors, Terry D. Bateman, 45, and Bradley A. Rowland, 40, were charged with manufacturing methamphetamine and using drug paraphernalia, the Clark County Sheriff’s Department said. Meth is a highly addictive drug that can be manufactured illegally with chemicals, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Bateman and Rowland are associate professors of chemistry at Henderson State University, a liberal arts school of about 3,500 students in Arkadelphia, about 70 miles southwest of Little Rock.

The professors went on administrative leave as of Oct. 11, Tina V. Hall, a university associate vice president of marketing and communications, said on Sunday.

Hall said that the school’s Reynolds Science Center had been closed on Oct. 8 because of “a report of an undetermined chemical odor.” Testing revealed an elevated presence of benzyl chloride in a lab, she said.

Benzyl chloride is used to produce certain dyes and pharmaceutical products, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Short-term effects from inhaling it include irritation of the skin, eyes and upper respiratory tract.

“Benzyl chloride is an inexpensive and versatile chemical that is used to make many other useful drugs and molecules,” Eric E. Simanek, a professor of chemistry at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, said on Sunday.

Stephen J. Madison, who is on the chemistry faculty at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, said that benzyl chloride could be used to help make methamphetamine.

Henderson State University’s on-call environmental services company conducted remediation work in the building, which reopened on Oct. 29, Hall said.

“The safety of our students, faculty, and staff is a top priority, and we continue to cooperate with authorities,” she said.

It was not clear whether the chemical smell in the school building had prompted the investigation by law enforcement. Hall referred questions about whether the instructors were making meth on campus to the sheriff’s department.

Sheriff Jason C. Watson did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday. Bateman and Rowland could not immediately be reached on Sunday. Their court appearances are pending, according to the sheriff’s department.

In April, Bateman was honored by the school for 10 years of employment there, according to the university.

The arrests called to mind the wildly popular “Breaking Bad” series, which ran from 2008 to 2015. The drama followed Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher played by Bryan Cranston who becomes an Albuquerque, New Mexico, drug lord when he can’t afford his cancer treatments.

This article originally appeared in

2 Arkansas Chemistry Professors Face Charges of Making Meth

It sounds like something from the award-winning former AMC series “Breaking Bad”: The authorities charged two chemistry professors in Arkansas on Friday in connection with the production of methamphetamine.

There were no fatalities reported, and the injuries ranged from minor to serious, the Virginia State Police said.

The crash took place about 4:35 a.m. in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 64 near the Blue Ridge Parkway and west of Afton Mountain, about 25 miles west of Charlottesville, authorities said.

James Proffitt, the driver of the tractor-trailer, lost control, and it overturned across the roadway, the police said. Andrew L. Burruss, who was driving a Silver Lining Tours bus in the same direction, was unable to avoid the tractor-trailer, and the bus struck it and split in half. The bus veered off the side of the highway and came to rest against a guardrail.

Alexander Burruss, the owner of the bus company, and the brother of the driver, said the passengers had bruises and broken bones. “They are thankful to be alive and back on the good earth,” he said.

The bus was coming back from the Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races in Charles Town, West Virginia, headed to Charlottesville when the crash occurred, he said.

The tractor-trailer had been carrying U.S. mail, the police said.

Four people were taken to the Augusta Health Medical Center in Fisherville, Virginia, and 15 others, including Proffitt, 44, and Burruss, 62, were taken to the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, officials said.

Of the 20 evaluated at the medical center, 16 patients were discharged from the emergency department, and four were admitted and were in fair condition, a spokeswoman said.

The initial crash caused seven other minor crashes, said the police, who described the road conditions at the time of the crash as slick and foggy.

At Least 24 Hurt in Tractor-Trailer and Bus Crash on I-64 in Virginia

At least 24 people were injured in a crash involving a charter bus and a tractor-trailer on a Virginia interstate Sunday morning, the authorities said.

The doctor, Javaid Perwaiz, 69, was arrested Friday and charged with one count of health care fraud and making false statements relating to health care matters, according to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Perwaiz was listed as an inmate at the Western Tidewater Regional Jail in Virginia, as of Monday. He appeared Friday in U.S. District Court in Norfolk wearing green scrubs, according to The Virginian-Pilot, and has a detention hearing scheduled for Thursday, according to the court documents. His lawyer, Lawrence H. Woodward Jr., did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

Perwaiz, who specializes in obstetrics and gynecology, has two offices in Chesapeake, Virginia, according to his website.

The investigation into Perwaiz began in September 2018 after the FBI received a tip from a hospital employee who suspected that he “was performing unnecessary surgeries on unsuspecting patients,” according to the arrest affidavit. The tipster told investigators that Perwaiz’s patients advised hospital staff that they were there for their “annual clean outs.” Hospital staff also had a difficult time keeping up with the doctor “as he ran from procedure to procedure.”

The patients were not aware of the procedures they were undergoing, according to court documents. The patients cited in the affidavit were identified by initials, not by name.

In one case, Perwaiz, who had treated a patient for an ectopic pregnancy in 2011, had routinely asked her whether she was going to have another baby, court documents say. Three years later, she sought treatment from a fertility specialist who told her that both her fallopian tubes “were burnt down to nubs.” Perwaiz had removed her fallopian tubes without her consent or knowledge.

In another case, the doctor advised a patient that “onset of cancer was imminent” and that she needed a hysterectomy, which she objected to, the investigators stated. She opted to have her ovaries removed.

When she came to in recovery, she was “shocked to discover Perwaiz performed a total abdominal hysterectomy,” according to the documents. During the procedure, the doctor perforated her bladder. She developed sepsis and was hospitalized for six days, according to investigators. After she obtained her medical files, she told investigators that it did not mention any precancerous cells.

Witnesses also told investigators that Perwaiz “routinely used the ‘C’-word (cancer) to scare patients into having surgery.”

Perwaiz attended medical school in Pakistan, and he completed a residency at Charleston Area Medical Center, according to The Virginian-Pilot.

He practiced in the Chesapeake region for more than 30 years, according to his website, which also described him as “dedicated to the promotion of health care to women from adolescence to menopause and beyond.”

He was also affiliated with Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center, in Portsmouth, Virginia, and Chesapeake Regional Medical Center, in Chesapeake, Virginia, according to The Virginian-Pilot.

In an email Monday, a spokeswoman for Bon Secours stated that “Dr. Perwaiz is not employed by Bon Secours or Bon Secours Medical Group. Like many independent physicians, he has held privileges at different hospitals/health systems.” A representative for Chesapeake Regional Medical Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment Monday.

Perwaiz has had other legal troubles.

In 1982, Perwaiz lost hospital privileges at Maryview Hospital, which was later acquired by Bon Secours, “due to poor clinical judgment and for performing unnecessary surgeries,” according to court documents. He had also been investigated by Virginia’s board of medicine for performing unnecessary surgeries, mostly hysterectomies, “without appropriate medical indications.” In 1996, he pleaded guilty to tax evasion. His medical license was revoked but then reinstated in 1998.

Perwaiz has been the subject of at least eight malpractice lawsuits. Court documents say “plaintiffs allege that he falsified patient records to justify a medical procedure, failed to use less invasive techniques, performed as many as 30 surgeries in one day and provided substandard care” that led to permanent injuries and life-threatening injuries.

Virginia Doctor Performed Hysterectomies Without Consent, Prosecutors Say

Authorities have charged a Virginia obstetrician and gynecologist accused of performing unnecessary hysterectomies and removing one patient’s fallopian tubes without her knowledge.

A 1-ton black boulder covered in streaks of white quartz sitting in an open meadow of lightly wooded trees outside Prescott, about 90 minutes north of Phoenix.

So when the boulder, fondly known to locals as Wizard Rock, suddenly vanished last month from the Prescott National Forest, forest officials were surprised: Who could move such a big thing without anyone noticing?

They sent out news releases and pleas on social media for its return.

And as stumped as they were that someone had swiped it, forest officials were just as astonished when someone returned the boulder, sometime during Halloween night.

“Maybe it’s magical,” joked Jason Williams, trails and wilderness manager at the national forest, which has 1.2 million acres outside Prescott.

“Wizard Rock Has Magically Reappeared!” the forest service announced Friday.

Forest officials don’t know who took or returned the rock.

“We have no idea,” Williams said. “It was taken with a piece of equipment. Somebody loaded it up and hauled it off. The intention is unknown whether they actually knew it was a big deal or not.”

He said he and other forest officials were thrilled at the return of the boulder, which has become a local landmark. People often pull over at the side of the highway to marvel at the rock and snap selfies.

“We just appreciate that somebody saw the value it had to the community and decided to return it,’’ Williams said.

A forest employee on patrol Friday morning came across the boulder, which, Williams said, was about 10 feet away from its original spot.

“It’s a striking rock,’’ said John Heiney, community outreach manager and head of the tourism office in Prescott, which has a population of 46,000. “It was this big beautiful rock close to the road.

“It’s something definitely people would go look for and take a photo,” he said. “To have a large specimen like this is unusual.”

So when the boulder went missing, the forest service asked for help.

“It’s unfortunate when we lose a treasure such as the Wizard Rock,” Sarah Clawson, district ranger for the Bradshaw Ranger District, said in a news release at the time. “These boulders belong to the public, and should be enjoyed by locals and visitors for years to come.”

Robert Coombs, a manager at the visitor and information center in Prescott, said the return of the Wizard Rock boulder was a good thing, but boulders have gone missing before.

In the last four months, there were two incidents of boulders weighing 750 to 2,000 pounds being swiped from the forest by people using heavy equipment, according to the national forest news release in late October.

In 2009, an 80-pound rock in the shape of a heart was removed from the Granite Mountain Wilderness. Forest officials also asked for the public’s help in that theft. An anonymous person returned the rock, Williams said. No questions were asked — the same with the Wizard Rock.

Permits are required to gather and remove most things such as rocks, firewood and trees from the forest.

Forest officials are looking to move the rock to a place where it can be more visible to the public.

“We are probably going to move it to one of our recreation sites that has a gate locked nightly,” Williams said. “We want to avoid other folks getting a kick out of moving the rock.”

1-Ton Wizard Rock Vanished in Arizona. Just as Mysteriously, It Returned.

Drivers traveling along Route 89 in Arizona have seen it off the two-lane road.

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Johnny Diaz

Articles written by the author

2 Arkansas Chemistry Professors Face Charges of Making Meth

At Least 24 Hurt in Tractor-Trailer and Bus Crash on I-64 in Virginia

Virginia Doctor Performed Hysterectomies Without Consent, Prosecutors Say

1-Ton Wizard Rock Vanished in Arizona. Just as Mysteriously, It Returned.