[meteorite-list] Moon Rock Thief Given 8 Years

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:36 2004
Message-ID: <200310301638.IAA11341_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/custom/space/orl-asecmoonrocks30103003oct30,0,1501752.story

Moon-rock thief given 8 years
By Henry Pierson Curtis
Orlando Sentinel
October 30, 2003

The mastermind of last year's theft of moon rocks from NASA described
himself Wednesday as a naïve, academic prodigy who took "underutilized"
specimens so he could teach others about the wonders of science.

At his sentencing in federal court in Orlando, Thad Ryan Roberts declared
that he had never intended to hurt anyone.

But his apology didn't earn him a minute off his sentence.

U.S. District Judge Anne C. Conway nearly doubled the sentence recommended
by federal guidelines. She sent Roberts to prison for eight years and four
months for the burglary that destroyed the scientific usefulness of lunar
and Martian specimens valued at a minimum of $21 million.

"That still does not come anywhere near giving the public the kind of
punishment that should be given for such a loss," she said.

In July 2002, Roberts, 26, and two other interns for the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration stole a 585-pound safe containing the specimens
from a laboratory at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. An accomplice in
Utah advertised the rocks for sale on the Internet. A rock collector in
Belgium alerted the FBI, who arrested three of the conspirators in Orlando
and the fourth in Texas.

Scientific value an issue

The collection included a tiny piece of a meteorite, ALH84001, that many
scientists think holds signs of possible life on Mars.

Conway referred to the handful of rock chips as "priceless national treasures,"
as she had at the earlier sentencings of Roberts' three co-defendants.
Months ago, she announced her intention to treat Roberts more harshly because
of his leadership role and because he lured others to break the law.

"Mr. Roberts, in my opinion, is a master manipulator," said Conway, who
ordered Roberts to undergo mental-health treatment in prison.

Contrary to the judge's estimation of the rocks' value, Roberts' lawyer, John
Edwards Fernandez of Tampa, compared them to discarded fossil fragments and
exhibits stored out of public view in museum basements.

His client's mistake was a momentary lapse in judgment, prompted by taking such
items in the past to show to others, he said.

Hearing himself described as a manipulator by the judge appeared to upset Roberts.

Screenplay in works

"Your honor, I believe your image of me is very shaded. It makes me
uncomfortable to speak to you," he said, before making a lengthy apology in
the nearly empty courtroom to his "heroes and mentors" at the space agency.

One of those heroes was the same NASA scientist who Conway said was one of the
most seriously aggrieved victims. The burglars destroyed 30 years of research
notes written by Everett K. Gibson Jr. Those notebooks were in the safe with the
moon rocks.

"Dr. Gibson was practically in tears on the stand because everything he had
worked on for years was all for nothing," she said. "From now on, . . . there's
nothing further he can do, and he can't even write a book."

"I guess Mr. Roberts is the only one who is going to be able to write a book on
this because he [Gibson] doesn't have his notebooks anymore."

Since his arrest in July 2002, Roberts has been writing a screenplay in the
Lake County Jail about his life and stealing the moon rocks. Defense lawyer
Daniel F. Daly, who saw the draft, described it as an Indiana Jones-style
fantasy.

Reached in Texas, Gibson declined to discuss the impact the burglary would have
on NASA's intern program, which recruits the country's top college science
students. Gibson said he can't discuss the case until the courts hear
an appeal by accomplice Sean McWhorter, 27, who is serving five years and 10
months in federal prison.

The stolen specimens lost their scientific value when the burglars contaminated
them by handling them and exposing them to the Earth's atmosphere.

"It's sad young people's lives have been disrupted by these irrational acts,"
Gibson said. "We will now get on with things."

According to court records and his lawyer, Roberts was working on degrees in
geology, geophysics and physics at the University of Utah when he was hired to
work in a temporary capacity at NASA. His lawyer said the former Eagle Scout
had a history of being a self-starter, and founded an astronomy club, rode his
bicycle from Utah to California to raise $10,000 for cystic-fibrosis research
and learned to fly airplanes.

Hints of strife in his life came out in Wednesday's hearing.

Roberts was disowned by his family over a religious dispute and then left the
Mormon church, according to testimony.

The family dispute arose after Roberts told them he had had sex with his
high-school sweetheart. The admission forced him to drop out of missionary duty
during a break from college.

Roberts and his sweetheart, Kaydee, were married from 1996 until 2002, the same
year he began an affair with Tiffany Brooke Fowler, a fellow NASA intern and
later, co-defendant, according to court testimony.

In his apology, Roberts mentioned Fowler, 23, as someone whom he had hurt and
said he had tried to make her happy. During a court appearance in August, she
did not look at Roberts during a lengthy hearing.

Roberts' apology also included Shae Lynn Saur, 20, the other NASA intern
arrested in the case.

Conway sentenced each of the women to six months of house arrest, three years
of probation and 150 hours of community service. Each could have been sentenced
to four years in prison, but the judge ruled that justice would not be served
by punishing them for such acts of aberrant behavior.

In concluding his apology, Roberts told the court he still hopes "to make a
significant contribution to science."

Henry Pierson Curtis can be reached at 407-420-5257 or hcurtis_at_orlandosentinel.com.
Received on Thu 30 Oct 2003 11:38:45 AM PST