U.S. to Pay $2.5M in Florida Man’s Anthrax Death

The U.S. government has agreed to pay $2.5 million to the widow and family of a Florida tabloid photo editor killed in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

A court filing obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press shows that Maureen Stevens will drop all other claims stemming from the death of Robert Stevens. The document also says the U.S. is not admitting fault.

Stevens’ lawsuit claimed the government was negligent because it failed to stop someone at an Army lab from creating weapons-grade anthrax used in letters that killed her husband and four other people. Seventeen more people were sickened.

Robert Stevens worked in Boca Raton for the publisher of the National Enquirer and other tabloids. He died Oct. 5, 2001.

The FBI blamed scientist Bruce Ivins for the attacks.