Russ, Our Government is fortunate to have you working on this. You are an expert in the field of meteorites and your opinion will be a great asset.
The kids are guilty and they will most likely receive stiff sentences. They need an expert too. John ----- Original Message ----- From: LabNEMS <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: John Sinclair <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, January 06, 2003 6:32 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] stolen lunar meteorites > John S./ List Members: > > I've been retained by the OIG and USAG on this case and am > currently under a US Federal Subpoena to appear. We did the Appraisal > on the samples contained within the safe stolen from JSC. > > (Sorry, OIG is the US Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, > USAG is the US Attorney General's Office, and JSC is Johnson Space Center > in Texas) > > I'm restricted as to what I can say on the value and how we did it but was told > that the Defense claims that these are "just a bunch of rocks". > > To say that they're "just a bunch of rocks" is certainly minimizing here. > > The material contained in that safe was extraordinary. The word "unique", > which > expresses an absolute, fails to adequately describe the contents. > > I agree with Geoff C. in that US Collectors understand the legality of US > citizens owning > Apollo Return Samples and perhaps the people who had the contents also knew > this > as they were attempting to sell the material through foreign buyers. > > A lot of time has been put into this case as there is no precedent here. A lot > of work has been put into the evaluation of this material. During the > appraisal > process I received the council of several fine members of our community. One > member, Greg R. was very helpful in crystallizing my thoughts in the final > appraisal and I publically thank him for his input (for those who don't > know Greg > he's a recently retired Federal Anti-Terrorist guy). > > As all of you know, all appraisals are an opinion of value. A good > appraisal is one > that backs the resultant opinion with facts and records. In some cases > value is not > limited to dollars alone. To this end we have tried to be as thorough as > possible. > > It is my understanding that guilt has already been established. It is now the > responsibility of the US Attorney General's Office to present all data to > the residing Federal Judge to determine the magnitude of the crime. > > Perhaps our List member Eric T. can speak more on the '"mechanics" of the > process. > > When all is said and done I'll post the appraisal details and proceedings > on this list (unless > for some reason I'm prohibited from doing so.) > > For my end this has consumed a huge amount of time. What a way to start the > new year! > But lucky me, I'll be paid $42.00 a day for my time away. That will get me > about 10 grams > of Cape York from Walter B. (minus the case). > > Russ Kempton > New England Meteoritical > www.meteorlab.com > > > > ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
