The sentence being sought for National Institutes of Health researcher Pearson "Trey" Sunderland III -- forfeiture of $300,000 and two years' probation -- is far too lenient ["NIH Scientist Pleads Guilty in Accepting $285,000 From Pfizer," Metro, Dec. 9].

Mr. Sunderland pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of violating conflict-of-interest rules related to his work as a consultant for pharmaceutical maker Pfizer Inc. Earlier this year, congressional investigators found that Mr. Sunderland had improperly forwarded tissue samples from volunteer research subjects to Pfizer. Those samples were passed on without the volunteers' knowledge or permission for personal and corporate gain. Some volunteers were Alzheimer's patients; others such as myself were healthy subjects who gave our time and our tissue because we had watched loved ones suffer and die from this dread disease.

While he was illegally accepting Pfizer's money, Mr. Sunderland was making pious statements about how, unlike bureaucrats and health policymakers, he was devoted to the cause of "pure" science.

Meanwhile, he's still on the taxpayers' payroll.

ANN ZUVEKAS

Annandale