01/28/10

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) _ A major Southwest antiquities dealer who
was forced to surrender five truckloads of American Indian relics
to federal agents is expected to settle charges of digging up a
grave and plundering artifacts from federal land.

A lawyer for Carl ``Vern'' Crites of Durango, Colo., told a
federal magistrate in Salt Lake City Thursday that he was
negotiating a plea deal with prosecutors.

But Crites told The Associated Press he was unaware of any
negotiations and that a government raid of his home last year was a
misunderstanding that later forced him to give up his collection of
thousands of artifacts.

Authorities have said that Crites bragged in secret recordings
of having sold pottery sets for $500,000.

The 75-year-old was one of 26 people arrested in Utah, Colorado
and New Mexico last year in an investigation into trafficking of
artifacts plucked from federal or tribal lands.


(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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