
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, October 4, 1994                   TAG: 9410050037
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COURT STANDS BEHIND FBI SEIZURE OF FOSSIL

In an action that could have far-reaching effects on the excavation and sale of dinosaur fossils, the Supreme Court on Monday let stand an appeals court's decision that the federal government had acted correctly in seizing a tyrannosaur skeleton from a private dealer two years ago.

The case involves a tyrannosaur nicknamed ``Sue,'' which was found and excavated in 1990 near Faith, S.D., by the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, a commercial dealer in fossils based in Hill City, S.D. Paleontologists say Sue is the most complete and best preserved tyrannosaur fossil ever found.

Ownership of Sue became the subject of a succession of legal battles that appear to have concluded Monday with the Supreme Court decision to let stand without comment the ruling of lower courts, which sustained the seizure of the fossil by the FBI.

In a separate action not directly related to the seizure of the fossil, the Justice Department has filed 39 criminal charges involving other fossils against officers of the institute, which could send them to prison for more than 20 years.

After discovering Sue's bones during a field trip, officers of the institute offered $5,000 to the land's owner, Maurice Williams, for the right to excavate the fossil, and he accepted.

But Williams is a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and his land is held in trust by the federal government in exchange for the tax relief extended to Indian reservation land.

Federal courts have ruled during the last two years that not only the land but any fossils it may contain are subject to federal rulings by the Department of Interior, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and other federal agencies.

Neither Williams nor the Black Hills Institute applied to any federal agency for permission to excavate Sue, so on May 11, 1992, the Justice Department sent 28 FBI agents, federal officials and National Guardsmen to raid the institute, seizing the plaster-encased bones of Sue and many other fossils.

by CNB