The script was written, and the actors were hired. But this was not a Broadway play or a movie.

The performance was part of an elaborate scheme that a University at Buffalo researcher had

concocted to win acquittal in a formal misconduct hearing run by officials of the state

university system in September 2007, according to state investigators.

And it worked, at least for a while, because William Fals-Stewart was acquitted. He then attempted to sue the

state for $4 million, claiming he had been wrongly forced out of his job in 2005 as a result

of the allegations of scientific misconduct.

But Fals-Stewart was charged with felony crimes Tuesday, and he is in serious trouble for

the role he played that day.

Investigators from the state attorney general's office arrested Fals-Stewart, 48, of Eden,

and accused him of using actors to portray witnesses testifying on his behalf at the hearing.

"The charges in this case allege a pattern of lies and deceit that a public employee used

to attempt to defraud New York's taxpayers of millions of dollars," Attorney General Andrew M.

Cuomo said in announcing the arrest. "[Investigators] discovered the alleged fraud, forced

Fals-Stewart to withdraw his lawsuit and initiated a criminal investigation."

Fals-Stewart was charged with attempted grand larceny, three counts of perjury, three

counts of identify theft, two counts of offering a false instrument and three counts of

falsifying business records, all felonies. He and his attorney, Joel L. Daniels, could not be

reached to comment.

State prosecutors said Fals-Stewart engaged in the fraudulent conduct in an attempt to

clear his name after leaving his UB job, under pressure, in 2005. He left after being accused

of scientific misconduct, for allegedly fabricating data in a federally funded study.

In court papers, prosecutors said Fals-Stewart hired three Buffalo-area actors to portray

witnesses whose testimony supported his case. The witnesses testified by telephone because

Fals-Stewart claimed they were out of town and unavailable to appear in person.

"In reality, they were actors who thought they were taking part in a mock trial," the

attorney general's office said. "[Fals-Stewart] told the three actors, whom he had hired

before for legitimate training videos, that they would be performing in a mock trial training

exercise. They were not aware that they were testifying at a real administrative hearing, nor

did they know they were impersonating real people."

Fals-Stewart provided the actors with "scripts" that "were riddled with inaccuracies

regarding his research," state attorneys said.

The three actors — identified in court papers as Ray Ammerman, Elaine Heckler and

Moira Keenan — were unaware that they were taking part in a scam and will not be charged

in the case, state officials said. Efforts to reach the three performers late Tuesday were

unsuccessful.

A Buffalo lawyer who accompanied Fals-Stewart at the hearing, Barry N. Covert, said he did

not question the witnesses and did not arrange their appearances at the hearing.

"I was very surprised by these allegations [against Fals-Stewart], but because of

attorney-client privilege, I'm not going to comment further," Covert said.

Covert and another attorney, Bruce Singal of Boston, Mass., represented Fals-Stewart in his

$4 million federal lawsuit against the state, which Fals-Stewart voluntarily withdrew last

year. At the time the case was withdrawn, no official reason was given.

Like Covert, Singal was reluctant to discuss Fals-Stewart when contacted Tuesday by The

Buffalo News. Singal said he was not aware of any of the alleged wrongdoing by Fals-Stewart

but declined to comment further.

Fals-Stewart is known nationally for his studies of substance abuse. In December 2007, he

received an award from the Butler Center for Research at Hazelden, an alcohol and drug

addiction treatment center in Minnesota, for a study on "behavioral couples therapy" as a

treatment for alcoholics.

He worked at UB's Research Institute on Addictions from 2000 until January 2005, when he

claimed he was forced to resign because of false allegations of scientific misconduct.

According to state attorneys, Fals-Stewart allegedly inflated the number of volunteers who

participated in his studies.

For years, Fals-Stewart has told people — including a News reporter during an

interview last April — that university officials framed him. He said he was cleared of

the allegations by a state university investigation panel, headed by D. Bruce Johnstone,

former chancellor of the state university system.

In a report issued by the panel in May 2008, Johnstone and other panel members concluded

that they found "insufficient evidence" for the scientific misconduct charges.

The report said the panel heard testimony from more than 20 witnesses. Cynthia Stappenbeck,

Charles McKinnivan and Janet Martin, the three witnesses who were allegedly portrayed by the

actors hired by Fals-Stewart, were listed in the report among those who gave testimony.

Fals-Stewart told The News last year that investigators from the university "terrorized"

him by searching his office and his home one day in September 2004, taking his computers and

dozens of boxes of documents.

"They even searched the bedrooms of my children," Fals-Stewart said at the time.

The researcher said he believed state officials made the false allegations to discredit him

because he was aggressively asking questions about the use of millions of dollars in federal

research grants at UB and other state universities.

He said he uncovered information that the state university system sometimes obtains federal

funding that is designated for one specific project and then uses the money for other

projects, a violation of state law.

A 2008 audit conducted by UB found some "inconsistencies" in how UB used some federal money

at the Research Institute on Addictions in the years 2002-04. But UB officials told The News

last year that any problems found in the audit have since been corrected.

Last year, prosecutors from the U.S. attorney's office in Buffalo began an investigation

into how the state universities spend $500 million a year in federal research funding.

Fals-Stewart claimed that his questions touched off the statewide investigation, but the U.S.

attorney's office declined to confirm or deny his role in the probe.

Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Kathleen M. Mehltretter declined to comment on whether the arrest

of Fals-Stewart will have any effect on the probe.

"I can only tell you that, generally, if we receive information that a government witness

has been charged with something, we'll take a full, 360-degree look at the whole situation,"

Mehltretter said.

Russell T. Ippolito Jr., assistant state attorney general in charge of the Buffalo office,

is prosecuting the case.

After leaving UB, Fals-Stewart got a job as a professor at the University of Rochester's

Nursing School in early 2007.

Fals-Stewart resigned from the Rochester job in November, according to a spokeswoman at the

nursing school. She said she could not comment on why he left.

Last year, Fals-Stewart told The News that he made $90,000 a year as a UB researcher and

claimed that his projects accounted for about $12 million in research grants for the

university.