REAL LIFE TOMB RAIDER ESCAPES JAIL
Copyright 2005 www.theregister.co.uk

[ January 14th 2005 ]

A California man who attempted to sell a 200-year-old Hawaiian skull on eBay has avoided jail on a federal rap and will instead do 600 hours community service, pay a $10,000 fine to the "victims" of the crime and issue an apology to Hawaii's citizens in three newspapers. Jerry David Hasson, 55, was charged in September on a single count of violating the Archaeological Resources Protection Act. Our report at the time gave the bizarre background to Hasson's crime and subsequent arrest.

In February 2004, Hasson placed the skull of "200 year-old warrior [who] died on Maui in the 1790s" up for auction on eBay, with bidding starting at $1,000 and an immediate purchase price of $12,500, according to prosecutors. In his eBay auction, Hasson said he took the skull as a souvenir from a guarded excavation site at Kaanapali Beach, Maui in 1969. He claimed the skull and other skeletal remains on beach were those of Hawaiian warriors who fought with or against Hawaii's legendary King Kamehameha.

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