Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office / AP / Shutterstock Steven Brandenburg
A pharmacist now fired in Wisconsin had his license suspended by a state council after he was accused of intentionally spoiling more than 500 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
According to an order issued by the Wisconsin Pharmacy Examining Board obtained by PEOPLE, Steven Brandenburg, 46, will not be allowed to practice pharmacy in the state or work in a pharmacy in any capacity while the suspension is in effect.
The request said Brandenburg was first licensed as a pharmacist on August 22, 1997, and he voluntarily agreed to the suspension “in order to focus on the planned criminal cases” against him.
Brandenburg was working as a pharmacist at a medical facility in Grafton when he allegedly removed doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from refrigeration units on 24 and 25 December with the alleged intention of rendering them ineffective, according to the order.
Brandenburg, who worked at Aurora Medical Center, has since been released from his post, the order said.
His lawyer, Jason Baltz, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
RELATED: Wisconsin pharmacist accused of destroying COVID-19 vaccines is allegedly a ‘conspiracy theorist’
Brandenburg was arrested on three counts – placing security recklessly, tampering with a prescription drug and criminal damage to property – and released from prison after posting $ 10,000 bail, online records confirm.
During a court hearing on January 4, Brandenburg was asked not to appeal the three recommended charges for which he was initially detained, while authorities worked to determine whether the bottles were really ruined, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Brandenburg’s charges can be changed depending on the results of tests carried out by Moderna on the contaminated flasks, according to the establishment.
If the doses were not, in fact, ruined, most of these charges would be dismissed.
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In the divorce papers filed the day before Brandenburg’s arrest and obtained by WISN, Brandenburg’s wife, Gretchen Brandenburg, claimed that her husband is an “admitted conspiracy theorist” who has rental units where he stores “bulk food and weapons “.
“I was so concerned about my safety and the safety of the children that I left the city for a period of time,” she wrote in the process.
The divorce petition also referred to a conversation the couple had when he left a water purifier, a large bucket of powdered milk and two buckets of 30-day emergency food for her and her children.
“He told me that if I didn’t understand now that he is right and the world is collapsing around us, I was in serious denial,” said the wife to the judge, adding that Brandenburg’s thinking “the government is planning cyber attacks and plans to turn off the power. “