SALT LAKE CITY—A defendant in the sweeping federal prosecution of theft and illegal trafficking of American Indian artifacts received leniency Wednesday when a judge rejected the government’s request for imprisonment.
Prosecutors sought a minimum 18 months in prison for Jeanne (JEAN’-nee) Redd, who instead got three years of probation and a $2,000 fine for her conviction on seven felony counts of plundering artifacts from tribal and federal lands. Redd, 59, pleaded guilty to the charges in July and surrendered 812 boxes of artifacts.
U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups also sentenced the woman’s 37-year-old daughter, Jericca Redd, to two years of probation and no fine on three similar felony counts.
The women, of Blanding, Utah, were the first to plead guilty among more than two dozen defendants caught up in a 2 1/2-year sting operation. They were also the first to be sentenced. Both declined to comment afterward.
The case broke open in June with pre-dawn raids by federal agents in Utah, New Mexico and Colorado.
U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman said prison time for Jeanne Redd would have been appropriate “given the serious nature of the conduct involved in this case.
“The judge, however, reached a different decision and we recognize that sentencing is within the court’s discretion,” Tolman said Wednesday. “The public needs to understand that looting artifacts, many considered sacred by Native Americans, from public and tribal lands is simply not going to be tolerated.”
Waddoups said he took into account the fact Jeanne Redd had a previous state conviction for robbing an ancient burial site in 1996. Nonetheless, the judge departed from the federal judiciary’s own sentencing guidelines by saying Redd quickly capitulated to the charges, had shown contrition and was a prominent community member who suffered from her husband’s suicide.
Dr. James Redd died of carbon monoxide poisoning inside his Jeep on his ranch a day after his arrest on a single felony count of possessing a stolen effigy bird pendant.
Waddoups said artifact collecting across the Southwest was for decades a “culturally accepted” pastime. “That doesn’t justify it,” he said, before citing Jeanne Redd’s need for medical care and the emotional support of her family.
“I am satisfied this conduct will not be repeated,” he said.
Redd’s attorney, Rod Snow, said that more than anything, Waddoups was mindful of the loss of her husband, although the judge made only an oblique reference to it in open court.
Snow said it was punishment enough. “Go to the cemetery and take a look at her husband’s headstone,” he suggested to reporters.
Around the time of the raids in Blanding, the hometown of 17 defendants, other arrests or searches were made in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. Authorities are aggressively pursuing leads, while dealers subjected to search warrants but not arrested have told The Associated Press they expect to be indicted within weeks.
