Dec. 29--Steven Watters sat in a cushy leather arm chair in the Houston living room of a fellow ALS sufferer and asked the man across from him hawking stem cell therapy if there was a cure for his disease.
"If I opt for the permanent fix, will I avoid a feeding tube?" Watters asked. "Will it keep me out of a wheelchair?"
"Oh yeah," the man replied. "Absolutely. We've gotten people out of wheelchairs."
Watters, an unassuming college administrator from Lufkin, knew it was a lie. He had thoroughly researched amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, after his diagnosis months earlier, in the summer of 2009. The doctors made it clear; there was no cure. He would die from ALS.
But he played dumb, peppering the balding man across from him, Lawrence Stowe, with question after question as part of a CBS News sting operation that helped to expose what federal officials describe as an elaborate scheme to sell stem cells from umbilical cords to terminally ill patients.
Prosecutors allege Stowe and three others -- a Brownsville man who posed as a doctor, a Del Rio midwife and a South Carolina researcher -- had a role in a stem cell scheme that netted more than $1.5 million from patients suffering from incurable diseases.
Cory B. Nelson, the FBI special agent in charge in San Antonio, said the nature of the crimes outlined in the indictments unsealed this week "mirrors images from science fiction."
The indictment accuses Stowe of marketing, promoting and selling stem cells -- along with other drug and biological products that had not been reviewed or approved by the Food and Drug Administration -- for the treatment of cancer, ALS, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease.
Officials say Stowe worked closely with Francisco "Frank" Morales, 52, who pretended to be a licensed doctor in the U.S. and an expert on stem cell research and treated patients in Mexico.
Federal agents say Alberto Ramon, a Del Rio midwife, allegedly collected cord blood from patients, sending it to a laboratory in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Federal agents accuse Vincent Dammai, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine in Charleston, S.C., who allegedly worked as a consultant for the Arizona laboratory, of harvesting stem cells from the cord blood. The stem cells were eventually sold to Morales, a Brownsville resident, who allegedly worked with Stowe and administered the unauthorized treatments in a clinic in Mexico.
Morales, Ramon and Dammai were all arrested and charged with mail fraud and unlawfully distributing stem cells from umbilical cord blood. Stowe remains a fugitive.
Authorities allege that Stowe told Michael Martin, the owner of a Houston landscaping company who suffered from ALS, that he could provide a "permanent fix" for ALS for $125,000 in November 2009. Martin allegedly had paid Stowe more than $47,000 by the time he started working undercover with 60 Minutes
Martin died in April. His brother, Jeff Martin, of Mize, Miss., said on Wednesday that he was glad that authorities had arrested Morales and were searching for Stowe.
"I just pity people who take advantage of other people," he said. "I do believe there is a judgment day."
Watters, who was enlisted to help with the 60 Minutes investigation after attending an ALS conference in Baltimore, Md., retired from his post at Angelina College in 2010. The tremors in his hands worsened with time, his runner's legs became useless, and he lost the ability to speak, his son Tyler Watters said. He died in May.
Tyler Watters, 27, said his father would have been pleased to see some justice for people who were given false hope for an ALS cure.
"He was very big into right and wrong. He was always all about telling the truth," he said. "I'm glad he got to do something like that before he passed, to be able to use his disease in a positive way."
susan.carroll@chron.com
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