Artifact theft suspect found dead near Blanding

Artifact theft suspect found dead near Blanding
Previous charges » James Redd was accused, acquitted in trespassing on Indian sites in the 1990s.


By Nate Carlisle And Patty Henetz
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 06/11/2009 08:12:26 PM MDT


A Blanding physician indicted this week with stealing or selling American Indian artifacts has been found dead.

James Redd, 60, who was prosecuted more than a decade ago in state court for robbing an ancient Indian grave, was found on his property near Blanding, according to law enforcement sources.

Few details, including Redd's cause of death, were immediately available, and the sources asked not be named until the San Juan County Sheriff's Office makes an official announcement.

On Wednesday, Redd was charged with one felony count of theft of Indian tribal property as a co-defendant with his wife, Jeanne Redd , 59, who faces two counts. The Redds were among 24 suspects from Utah, Colorado and New Mexico



James Redd

charged with felonies for allegedly trafficking in Four Corners-area archaeological artifacts protected under federal law.

Court papers say that in September 2007Jeanne Redd possessed with intent to sell ancient relics including a black and white ceramic mug, a hafted ax, a gourd necklace and an effigy bird pendant. Each of the artifacts was valued at more than $1,000.

Jeanne Redd also was accused of swapping two stone pendants for two other stone pendants valued at more than $500. In October 2008, she allegedly sold four sandals valued at more than $1,000.

Federal agents, who tapped a confidential informant identified only as the "Source" to buy and sell artifacts, spent two years building the case against the Redds and the others 22 others indicted in the theft and sale of more than 250 items, many of them sacred, from burial sites and other areas in the Four Corners region.

The Redds have been accused before of trespassing on Indian burial sites. In 2003, they agreed to pay the state $10,000 after they were prosecuted for raiding a grave. The payment settled a $250,000 lawsuit brought against them by the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration.

Before the payment, the Redds were charged with desecration of a corpse, a felony, after a sheriff's deputy observed them and some of their children digging at an Indian burial site in Cottonwood Wash near Bluff in January 1996. After a long legal battle -- in which district court judges three times dismissed charges that were later reinstated by the Utah Court of Appeals or the Utah Supreme Court --Jeanne Redd pleaded no contest to a reduced charge. Charges against James Redd were dropped.

The federal investigation revealed Wednesday involved special agents from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the FBI. U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman said the investigation is ongoing.

Most of the suspects are from San Juan County; three are from Durango, Colo.; and one from Albuquerque, N.M.

The informant, who was crucial to building the federal case, was wired with an audio-visual recorder when buying ancient baby blankets, stone pipes, seed jars, and sandals from the suspects, according to a search warrant affidavit unsealed Wednesday.

That warrant was for evidence gathered on San Juan High teacher David Lacy, a brother of San Juan County Sheriff Mike Lacy.

Tolman's spokeswoman, Melodie Rydalch, said Thursday none of the other affidavits had been unsealed yet.

The undercover purchases cost $335,685, Tolman said Wednesday. But new Bureau of Indian Affairs head Larry EchoHawk, a former Brigham Young University law professor, said that was just the prices put on the artifacts during the illegal transactions, not their true worth.

"These articles are really priceless," EchoHawk said during a news conference in Salt Lake City. "You can't put a dollar figure on them."

The Redds were among the 21 defendants freed Wednesday after initial appearances before U.S. Magistrate Samuel Alba in Grand County.

A 78-year-old member of the Utah Tourism Hall of Fame, Harold J. Lyman of Blanding, entered a plea of not guilty Thursday to trafficking in stolen artifacts.

ncarlisle@sltrib.com

phenetz@sltrib.com

Reporter Erin Alberty contributed to this story.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12572033