I’ve been following the case of Bob Knowlton, the artifacts dealer from Grand Junction, Colorado who was arrested as part of the big pothunting sting operation centered on Blanding, Utah that has been playing out over the past couple of years, for a while now, so I should note that he was recently sentenced to 18 months probation, with that probation also apparently including a ban from federal land for the same period. (The Salt Lake Tribune article describes him as being banned from federal land “for collecting purposes” for the 18 months, but collecting from federal land is already illegal so presumably Knowlton is being banned more generally.) Obviously this is a very light sentence, which we’ve seen before in some of the other cases stemming from this investigation, but it was part of a plea deal in which Knowlton, who originally pleaded not guilty, ended up pleading guilty to just one count of selling a single artifact, a pipe from Big Westwater Ruin near Blanding that he apparently bought from a relative of the archaeologist who excavated that site, to a federal operative. It’s not clear what else that deal involved; Knowlton doesn’t appear to be particularly well-connected to the networks of wealthy collectors who may be the government’s ultimate goal. His indictment focused on where he got the artifacts, specifically from various federal employees and archaeologists who should not have been selling them, rather than what he did with them, so his plea deal may involve a move by investigators “upstream” toward the sources of illicit artifacts rather than “downstream” toward their destinations.
Knowlton Sentenced
December 5, 2010 by teofilo
Posted in Northern San Juan, Now, Protection | 2 Comments
2 Responses
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Do you see the recent suicide by the government’s “Deep Throat” as a reason for the plea bargaining or as not particularly significant in this case? I am particularly interested in the reference to the origins of some of the looted objects as much of the press seemed to focus on “good old boy” locals rather than other sorts of folks.
I don’t think the suicide was particularly important, although it probably did weaken the government’s hand in trying to bring people to trial. They had a lot of evidence already from his recordings, and any testimony he would have given would have been on top of that. I still think a lot of this plea bargain stuff is part of the overall plan to go after the collectors, but it’s hard to say at this point.
I’d say the “good old boys” were the focus of the investigation because they were the ones digging up most of the stuff, but the Knowlton case is interesting because he wasn’t really part of that. I don’t know if his plea deal will actually uncover any additional sources of artifacts, but it’s something to watch.