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David Lacy claims he never intended to profit from selling American-Indian artifacts he started collecting as a boy growing up in the Four Corners area.
The 58-year-old schoolteacher has spent much of his life in Blanding and was "constantly exposed to Native American artifacts and developed a love of Native American culture and history," his attorney Matthew R. Lewis told a federal court magistrate before Lacy's sentencing in Moab on Friday for trafficking in stolen artifacts.
But Lacy found himself in the center of a federal case along with other Blanding residents after he sold some of the items he collected to an undercover informant, his attorney said.
"Decades ago, as a young adult Mr. Lacy collected the items that are the subject of his [guilty pleas]. However, for more than 20 years those items have been boxed up in storage until Mr. Lacy was persuaded by a confidential informant to sell those items," Lewis wrote in a court document. "Mr. Lacy was not and never has been an active buyer or seller of artifacts."
U.S. Magistrate Samuel Alba on Friday sentenced Lacy to one year of probation, following Lacy's guilty pleas in September to three misdemeanors related to trading in illegally obtained artifacts.
Lewis said Lacy deserved probation for the crime because of the positive impact he has made in the Blanding community over the years.
A teacher at San Juan High School for 18 years, Lacy coaches the boys' and girls' golf teams at the school and also has served on the Blanding City Council. Lacy also has "worked closely with Native American students who attend San Juan High School," Lewis wrote in a court document.
Leading up to his sentencing, Lacy tried to claim that agents failed to inform him of his civil rights when they arrived at his home on June 10 to serve a search warrant.
But a federal judge in April 2010 sided with the BLM agents who questioned Lacy, finding the agents' account of their interaction with Lacy trumped Lacy's version of events.
BLM agent Scott Kotlowski testified at a February 2010 hearing that he read Lacy his Miranda rights from a printed card when he and BLM Chief Ranger Jason Caffey — along with several other armed agents — surrounded and entered Lacy's home. After speaking with officers for a few hours in the home, Lacy was arrested on seven felony and two misdemeanor charges.
Caffey testified that Lacy was cooperative, saying "he would tell [agents] anything we wanted to know."
The officers acknowledged in court that they didn't have Lacy sign an "Advice of Rights" form, which attests a suspect has been given a Miranda warning, until after the interview instead of before it, as is customary. Kotlowski said he left the form in his truck.
But Judge Ted Stewart ruled that although the agents may have overlooked some steps in the process of recording Lacy's rights, their testimony about their encounter with Lacy was "highly credible." The judge noted Lacy eventually signed the Advice of Rights form and that the BLM officers "have little, if any, motivation to testify falsely about these things."
Lacy is among the 26 people indicted in the dealing of prehistoric artifacts taken from tribal lands.
Lacy met an undercover operative working for the FBI in December 2007 and January 2008, according to court documents.
Court papers state the operative paid $1,500 for a menstrual-pad loincloth and a basket fragment that Lacy said he had taken from Bullet Canyon near the Grand Gulch wilderness area. The operative also paid $1,700 for two sandals Lacy said he dug up from the Baby Mummy Cave burial site in Cottonwood Wash, court documents state.
In connection with his guilty plea, Lacy admitted selling a turkey feather and an apron to the informant.
Lacy's sentencing on Friday marks the latest in a case in which many of the defendants were convicted of felonies, but none has been ordered to serve prison time.
Lacy is the brother of former San Juan County sheriff Mike Lacy, who last month entered a plea in abeyance to a misdemeanor count of misusing public funds during his time in office.
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