The doctor whose homes in upstate New York and on the Jersey shore were searched by FBI agents investigating the 2001 anthrax attacks is a family physician and self-styled bioterrorism expert who works in the UPMC McKeesport emergency department.

Dr. Kenneth M. Berry, 48, is employed by Emergency Resources Management Inc., a subsidiary of UPMC that provides staffing for emergency rooms in 10 hospitals in the region. A UPMC McKeesport emergency room employee acknowledged he worked there.

On Thursday, federal agents searched two homes in Wellsville, N.Y., where Berry lives or has lived, as well as his parent's cottage in Ocean Beach, N.J. An FBI spokesman said the searches by agents from the FBI and the U.S. Postal Service were part of the anthrax probe, though he declined to say what the agents were seeking or identify what was seized.

From 1996 to 2001, Berry worked in the emergency department at Jones Memorial Hospital in Wellsville and was medical director of the department for a time. But he resigned in October 2001 and no longer has privileges at the hospital.

UPMC spokeswoman Jane Duffield would only confirm that Berry worked for the UPMC subsidiary and would not say when he began working there.

William DiBerardino, who retired as administrator of Jones Memorial in 2000, said Berry used to work occasional shifts in Pittsburgh emergency rooms back then to make extra money. Filling in as temporary physician staff, a practice known as locum tenens, is a common practice for many physicians and many hospitals employ them, he noted.

In 1997, Berry established an organization called Preempt Medical Counter-Terrorism Inc. to train emergency medical personnel on how to respond to chemical, biological or nuclear weapons attacks.

Dr. Michael Allswede, who specializes in medical response to bio-chemical attacks at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and is a consultant to the FBI, said he barely knew Berry.

"I met him one time for about a half hour three years ago," Allswede said. "I don't have any idea what he's doing."

He said he had no idea why federal agents involved in the anthrax case are now interested in Berry.

Anthrax-laced envelopes were mailed in the fall of 2001 to government and news media offices, killing five people and sickening another 17.

In 2002, the U.S. government had identified Dr. Steven Hatfill, a former government bioweapons expert,as a "person of interest" in the case. Hatfill, who once worked at the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., has denied any wrongdoing and has sued the government, saying his reputation was ruined.

Berry's father, William C. Berry, told The Star-Ledger of Newark that his son knew Hatfill. He also maintained that the FBI is unfairly targeting his son.

"Hey, here's a guy being shafted by the FBI," Berry said from his home in Newtown, Conn. "It's just buying time because they have nothing on anthrax. You're looking at a setup."

After the raids on his homes yesterday, Berry was arrested at the White Sands Oceanfront Resort and Spa in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., on four counts of simple domestic assault. Police said he punched his girlfriend and her daughter. He subsequently posted $10,000 bail.

The New York Times reported that Berry said he did not know why agents had searched his property.

"We are at a very dangerous crossroads in American history," Berry said.

According to his organization's Web site, Berry graduated from American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine in Montserrat in 1983. Berry has had a Pennsylvania medical license since 1984. His license, which expires in December, is in good standing and he has had no disciplinary actions against him here.

Two daughters of Berry live in Masontown, Fayette County.

Tim and Dorothy Kovach, who lived next door to Berry when the doctor had rented a duplex on Smithfield Road eight years ago, said FBI agents visited their house about two months ago inquiring about Berry.

The agents told them they were doing a background check for a job.

"We never had trouble with him," Tim Kovach said yesterday. "I can't believe he would end up like this.

"For all I knew, he was an ear doctor. That's all he told us."

The Kovachs said that Berry lived in Masontown for three years, but that he was usually there only on weekends.

"It was like the wind. He blew in and out," said Tim Kovach.

Berry's Web site says he was president of the American Academy of Emergency Physicians. But a spokeswoman for the American College of Emergency Physicians yesterday emphasized that Berry's organization is not recognized as a certifying organization by the American Medical Association.

Berry is board-certified as a family physician, not an emergency physician, she said.

The Preempt Web site indicates that the organization sponsored three educational conferences in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., from 1997-99. The site also notes that he gave a talk on bio-defense in Gothenburg, Sweden, in June.

In March, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued Berry a patent on a computerized surveillance system that combines weather data and reports of human symptoms in an area to determine if certain chemical, biological or nuclear hazards are present.

In the late 1990s, Berry was quoted in a smattering of news reports about terrorism. In a 1997 USA Today story, for instance, Berry was quoted as saying, "We ought to be planning to make anthrax vaccine widely available to the population, starting in the major cities."