Dinosaur expert will plead guilty to stealing bones

By Josh Levs
CNN
(CNN) - An internationally renowned paleontologist will plead guilty to
stealing bones from federal land, his attorneys said in a court filing.

Nate Murphy - whose famous finds include Leonardo, one of the best
preserved dinosaurs in the world - will make that plea in federal court in
Billings, Montana.

Murphy also pleaded guilty earlier this month in state court, where he
was charged with stealing a fossil from private land in order to sell it. An
expert cited in that case said Murphy's find, a raptor fossil, was worth
between $150,000 and $400,000.

Murphy, a self-taught dinosaur expert who serves as Director of
Vertebrate Paleontology at the Judith River Dinosaur Institute, could face jail
time.

He and his attorney did not immediately respond to phone messages Friday
from CNN.

Jessica Fehr, lead prosecutor in the case, said the U.S. Attorney's
Office has no comment until after the plea is entered.

In court papers, federal prosecutors say that between about August 2006
and August 2007, near Malta, Montana, Murphy, "knowing, or having reason to
know, that he was on federal property, did knowingly and willfully steal,
purloin, or convert to his own use and the use of others, paleontological
resources (i.e. vertebrate fossil bones) from Bureau of Land Management lands,
of a value in excess of $1,000."

In the state case, Murphy pleaded guilty to a felony charge of theft. As
part of the plea, the state recommended Murphy's sentence be deferred for five
years.

Douglas Erwin, president of The Paleontological Society and curator of
the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, said "theft of fossils
from pubic lands has long been a problem."

In a written statement sent to CNN Friday, he said such thefts "can often
result in the loss of important scientific information and the disappearance of
specimens that belong to the public. At the same time, however, fossil
collecting, particularly of common invertebrate fossils has been a pastime
enjoyed by many for decades, and is an important way of connecting people with
their natural heritage."

An omnibus public lands bill, which the U.S. Senate passed Thursday,
includes penalties for fossil theft from public land.