SALT LAKE CITY—Federal prosecutors in Utah said Monday that despite the death of an undercover informant they’ll move ahead with cases against more than 20 people charged after a long-running artifacts looting investigation.
The operative’s death may prompt prosecutors to change their strategy at trial, but the setback isn’t enough for them to scrap the cases, said acting U.S. Attorney for Utah Carlie Christensen. She declined to provide more details.
“We think we have enough evidence to move ahead with the case,” Christensen said Monday morning after a status conference at federal court in Salt Lake City.
Defense attorneys indicated they’ll ask federal judges to limit what kind of evidence can be presented at trial when it comes to Ted Gardiner, a Utah businessman who worked with the FBI and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for two years. He secretly recorded deals for American Indian artifacts in the Four Corners area.
Gardiner provided hundreds of hours of footage for investigators that are central to prosecutors’ cases.
He died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound March 1 in what police called an apparent suicide.
Two defendants in the case committed suicide last year.
“I think it’s been emotional for everyone,” said defense attorney Richard Mauro, who’s representing Marie Crites, one of 26 people indicted as part of the sting operation.
In court Monday, prosecutors made their first acknowledgment of Gardiner’s death but did not identify him by name. Assistant attorney Richard McKelvie said the development was not fatal to the government’s case.
University of Utah law professor Paul Cassell said Gardiner’s absence makes it more difficult for the government to tell a complete story to the jury.
“They have a movie but no context,” Cassell said. “It makes the government’s life more complicated.”
Also Monday, U.S. Magistrate Samuel Alba scheduled several cases for trial. The first is set to start May 3.
He gave defense attorneys until April 2 to submit requests to limit evidence.
Two people pleaded guilty last summer to federal charges connected with the case. The rest have pleaded not guilty.
The investigation is considered one of the largest ever targeting those who excavate, buy and sell pottery, jewelry, pipes and other ancient Indian relics taken from public and tribal land in the Southwest.
Gardiner signed up with federal investigators in early 2007. Over the next two years, he struck deals for more than 250 artifacts worth more than $335,000. Court papers said he was typically paid $7,500 a month.
Gardiner was expected to testify at a trial in Colorado on March 29. That trial has now been reset for July.
