03/22/2006
By Scott Sonner
Associated Press
One of two men whose federal conviction for stealing American Indian artwork was overturned says the pair simply wanted to protect the ancient petroglyphs from encroaching development.
Carroll Mizell, who served 10 months in prison after being found guilty in June 2004 of stealing the rock art, said "we wanted to save the property.
"My whole intent was to free these things so they wouldn't be destroyed," Mizell told The Associated Press on Wednesday from Redmond, Ore.
"We didn't do this because we wanted to put them on e-Bay," he said.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the Justice Department failed to prove the rock art taken from a national forest on the edge of Reno had a market value of more than $1,000, a requirement for a felony conviction of government theft.
Mizell and John Ligon of Reno admitted during their federal court trial in Reno that they took three boulders with etchings of an archer and bighorn sheep from the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. But they insisted they didn't know it was illegal, partly because there were no signs marking the site.
Forest Service officials believe the petroglyphs are at least 1,000 years old. They were located within a few hundred yards of backyards in a neighborhood in northwest Reno where hundreds of new homes are scheduled to be built.
Natalie Collins, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Las Vegas, said federal prosecutors are considering asking the appeals court to reconsider the case but they had no further comment.
Mizell said he did not feel vindicated by the ruling.
"This is crazy what I've been through and now they say, `Oh, we made a mistake?'" said Mizell, an artist who lived in Van Nuys, Calif., and Reno, but now works as a glass blower in Oregon.
"My name was trashed in the community. I was made out to be a thief, man ˜ like I'm a rock thief, I attacked the Indian culture. It was as if we might as well just gone and dug up some graves the way they treated us," he said.
"I've done 10 months in prison. I've seen two shrinks who have me on two types of meds to cope with it."
The men were arrested after a neighbor saw a news account of the theft and notified police that the boulders ˜ one weighing 300 pounds ˜ were being used as landscaping in Ligon's front yard.
"John said, `Let's put them there.' I said we needed to give them to an Indian museum and I made some calls to do that," he said.
David Houston, Mizell's lawyer, made the same argument during the trial.
"There are times people will take artifacts knowingly to sell on the black market. ... loot or raid or rob a site of antiquities for the purpose of knowingly taking artifacts to their home or to a secret place where they and they alone can view it. This is not that kind of case," Houston told the jury.
Mizell wanted to "protect these rocks. ... to avoid having the developers literally chew them up and spit them out," he said.
In their ruling, the 9th Circuit judges said prosecutors could not use evidence of the archaeological value of the petroglyphs to prove a government theft charge that hinged on a "market value" of more than $1,000.
A Forest Service archaeologist testified at the trial that the petroglyphs had an archaeological value of about $8,000, and William Dancing Feather, cultural resources coordinator for the Washoe Tribe, said the tribe considered the petroglyphs a priceless treasure.