Attorney wants Evidence Rejected in Artefacts Theft Case

Associated Press: Attorney wants evidence tossed in artifacts case, 04/22/10

GRAND JUNCTION, COLO. — An attorney wants evidence thrown out that was gathered by an FBI informant who spent two years helping the government build its case in the largest-ever American Indian artifacts looting case. Sixty-six-year-old Robert Knowlton of Grand Junction is accused selling three items stolen from federal land to FBI informant Ted Gardiner, a 52-year-old Utah antiquities dealer, who committed suicide last month. Knowlton attorney Jeffrey Pagliuca says videotapes and audio recordings made by Gardiner are now inadmissible at trial because Gardiner can't be questioned in court about them.

I wonder what questions he would like to ask Mr Gardiner. "Mr Gardiner, is that Robert Knowlton's voice we hear on the tape?", "Mr Gardiner, did Mr Knowlton really say the things we hear on that tape?", "Mr Gardiner, do you think Mr Knowlton was telling lies when he said the things we hear on the tape?" It seems to me these are questions that Mr Knowlton could equally well answer. (Something like: "No, your honor, that is not my voice, the tapes have been doctored by the FBI and BLM and of course I was just telling my client Mr Gardiner a little fairy story to make the goods he was inquiring about sound more interesting".) Surely the tapes are not being submitted as evidence by Jim Gardiner personally, but by the Federal authorities that had commissioned their creation. They are the accusers here.


Prosecutors have until April 30 to respond to this request. A hearing on the matter is set in Denver U.S. District Court for May 28.

Mr Knowlton's website contains no further information on the matter

BOB'S FLINTSHOP FINE, AUTHENTIC RELICS ALL ITEMS ARE GARANTEED TO BE GENUINE AND UN-ALTERED-- A TWO WEEK INSPECTION PERIOD IS ALLOWED-FOR YOUR PERSONAL USE OR AUTHENTICATION ALL INDIAN ARTIFACTS ARE FULLY GARANTEED TO BE FROM PRIVATE LAND FOUND WITH PERMISSION FROM THE OWNER

I wonder what form this guarantee takes?

Now frankly if I were Mr Knowlton accused by Mr Gardiner that I'd sold him some dodgy stuff and he has "tapes to prove it", and I am convinced I had done nothing of the sort, then I'd be very concerned that these "tapes" were actually shown in a court of law so that I and my attorney would have a chance to show that they are simply a pack of lies. After all, now Gardiner is dead Knowlton cannot sue him for defamation. If my attorney was to say to me that he cannot do that (show they are a pack of lies), I'd probably get another one who could. I'd not sit idly by while the guy tries to get out of defending me and my good name properly. After all, if the three objects concerned really can be guaranteed to come from private land and were taken with the permission of the landowners, then there would be some documentation of that, and three landowners can come forward and say on oath that yes, those three items came from their land and the person who sold them to Knowlton had their permission to do so.

So that is a Cloud Blower pipe for $750, which DOES NOT come from the "Big Westwater" Site in southern Utah, but somewhere else with the landowner's permission,

a Midland Point for $3,000 that was NOT sold to Knowlton by an errant Park Ranger who had picked it up near Telluride, Colo., after a fire and whom Knowlton had NEVER bought a "lot of stuff from". It comes from somewhere else with the landowner's permission

and a Hell Gap knife for $3,000 that had NOT been bought from a woman who had found it near the Moab airport, but somewhere else with the landowner's permission.


Knowlton is anyway going to have to produce the landowners who gave permission to the finder because the other charge he is faced with is a felony count of interstate transportation of stolen property (up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine). If the objects were taken from private land but without the owner's permission, it is still theft, tapes or no tapes. When these landowners come forward we are likely to learn a lot more about how legal artefact hunting is done in the Four Corners area. I look forward to hearing their stories.

See: Pamela Manson, Widening artifact probe snags another defendant Salt Lake Tribune 26th Aug 2009.