A mother and daughter received probation yesterday for their roles in the theft and illegal trafficking of Indian artifacts in Utah, The Associated Press reported today.

Government lawyers sought a prison sentence of at least 18 months for Jeanne Redd on multiple counts stemming from the Utah Indian artifacts raid in June, according to The AP. She received three years of probation and a $2,000 fine on seven felony counts. Her daughter, Jerrica Redd, got two years of probation on three related counts. The mother and daughter pleaded guilty to the charges in July.

More than 150 federal agents were involved in the raid that nabbed more than two dozen people for alleged violations of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Utah U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman had to issue a statement and hold a news conference to defend the federal actions, which drew scorn from Utah officials, including Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett.

Hatch said the raid was “unnecessary and brutal.” Physician James Redd, Jeanne Redd’s husband, committed suicide a day after he was charged in the raid, followed by the suicide of another suspect a week later.

Brett Tolman (DOJ)

Tolman told The AP that a prison sentence for Jeanne Redd would have been the correct decision “given the serious nature of the conduct involved in this case.”

“The judge, however, reached a different decision and we recognize that sentencing is within the court’s discretion,” Tolman told the news wire. “The public needs to understand that looting artifacts, many considered sacred by Native Americans, from public and tribal lands is simply not going to be tolerated.”

U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups said, according to The AP, that artifact collecting isn’t justified simply because it is a “culturally accepted” hobby in the Southwest. But he did not follow federal judiciary sentencing guidelines, saying Jeanne Redd was repentant, quickly surrendered and is an important community member who is still coping with her husband’s suicide, the news wire reported.

“I am satisfied this conduct will not be repeated,” he said, according to The AP.

The judge said he was aware Jeanne Redd had a past encounter with the law over Indian artifacts, according to The AP. Jeanne and James Redd paid the state of Utah $10,000 in 2003 after they were prosecuted for looting an Indian burial ground. The charges against James Redd for the 1996 incident were eventually dropped, while his wife pleaded no contest to a reduced charge.

Jerrica Redd was not charged during the June 10 raid. Authorities later found evidence in the Redds’ home that allegedly connected her to the artifact thefts, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Jeanne and Jerrica Redd were the first people from the raid to be sentenced.

A Utah man accused of planning to beat a government informant who helped build a case against alleged Indian artifacts thieves pleaded not guilty in federal court Thursday. Prosecutors said he had ties to white supremacists.

A grand jury returned an indictment against Charles Denton Armstrong, 44, on Wednesday. He was charged with one count of retaliation. Prosecutors said Armstrong told a witness he planned to tie a government informant to a tree and beat him with a baseball bat. Armstrong blamed the informant for the suicide of his doctor, James Redd, the government said. Read the Salt Lake Tribune story here.

Redd killed himself June 11, a day after 150 federal agents raided the homes of Utahans suspected of trafficking in artifacts stolen from tribal lands. The raids, which netted 24 indictments, sparked a chorus of protests in Utah, and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) criticized Attorney General Eric Holder for them at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in June.  Utah U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman later held a news conference to say the raids were conducted under standard operating procedure and to deny that excessive force was used.

Another accused artifacts trafficker also later committed suicide. Read our previous report about the suicides here. Redd’s wife and daughter, meanwhile, pleaded guilty earlier this month to theft charges in connection with the case.

According to the Deseret News:

Armstrong, who was being treated by James Redd for a degenerative spinal disorder, told a witness that he knew who the confidential source was who helped in the investigation and that he was going to “take care of him” because he blamed the source for Redd’s suicide.

Prosecutors say Armstrong has a violent history, has served time in prison and identified himself as a member of a white supremacist gang.

Federal authorities charged a former patient of the late Dr. James Redd with planning to retaliate against an informant in the Utah Indian artifacts case, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Charles Denton Armstrong said he intended “to take care of” a source that helped officials collect evidence in the theft and trafficking case by tying the person to a tree and beating him with a baseball bat, according to court documents obtained by The Tribune. He said in an affidavit that he didn’t want to kill the source, just “hurt him real bad,” The Tribune reported.

Redd was one of two defendants to commit suicide after 150 federal agents conducted a massive raid on Utahans alleged to have violated the Archaeological Resources Protection Act and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The raid caused an uproar in Utah, with officials accusing the government of having used too much force, and U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman denying it. Redd’s widow, Jeanne Redd, and her daughter, Jerrica Redd, pleaded guilty last week to multiple theft and illegal trafficking charges.

Jeanne and James Redd had had a previous run-in with the law over Indian artifacts. The Redds paid the state of Utah $10,000 in 2003 after they were prosecuted for raiding an Indian burial ground. The charges against James Redd for the 1996 incident were eventually dropped, while his wife pleaded no contest to a reduced charge.

Jeanne Redd and her daughter, Jerrica Redd, pleaded guilty this afternoon to multiple theft and illegal trafficking charges stemming from the Utah Indian artifacts raid last month.

Jeanne Redd was indicted during the June 10 raid that drew scorn many Utah offiicals, including Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett. Hatch said the raid was “unnecessary and brutal.” Physician James Redd, Jeanne Redd’s husband, committed suicide a day after he was indicted in the raid, followed by the suicide of another suspect a week later.

Read our previous reports on the raid here and here.

More than 150 federal agents were involved in the roundup of Utahans suspected of violating the Archaeological Resources Protection Act and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The U.S. Attorney for Utah, Brett Tolman, had to issue a statement and hold a news conference to defend the federal actions.

Jeanne and James Redd had had a previous run-in with the law over Indian artifacts. The Redds paid the state of Utah $10,000 in 2003 after they were prosecuted for raiding an Indian burial ground. The charges against James Redd for the 1996 incident were eventually dropped, while his wife pleaded no contest to a reduced charge.

Jerrica Redd was not indicted during the June 10 raid. Authorities later found evidence in the Redds’ home that allegedly connected her to the artifact thefts, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Read the Salt Lake Tribune story here and The Associated Press story here.

A recent massive federal raid and arrests of two dozen people for selling Indian artifacts allegedly plundered from public lands is turning into a public relations problem for the Obama administration. On Friday, news broke that a second defendant in the case had committed suicide.

To put it mildly, events aren’t turning out the way the Department of Justice planned when it trumpeted news of the June 10 arrests.

At first, the department clearly thought it had a great story to tell. It sent out a national news release describing the two-year undercover investigation as ”the nation’s largest investigation of archaeological and cultural artifact thefts.”

Brett Tolman (gov)

The administration dispatched heavy hitters to stand next to Utah U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman at a news conference in Salt Lake. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was there, along with Deputy Attorney General David Ogden. Also at the news conference was the new Bureau of Indian Affairs head, Larry EchoHawk, a former Brigham Young University law professor; and FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Utah office, Timothy Fuhrman.

But residents of the rural Four Corners area of Utah near the Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona borders quickly began grumbling about heavy-handedness on the part of the feds. More than 100 agents including an FBI SWAT team participated in the raids. Among the 24 arrests were four suspects who were more than 70 years old. Although some agents reportedly had drawn their guns, the raids were carried out without violence – except for one suspect who alleged his toes had been broken.

The real problems for the government emerged after the raids. On June 11, a 60-year-old doctor who’d been arrested and charged committed suicide, apparently by carbon monoxide poisoning. It didn’t matter to local residents that James Redd and his wife had a history of run-ins with the law over Indian artifacts. (The Redds had paid the state of Utah $10,000 in 2003 after being prosecuted for raiding an Indian burial ground. The charges against Redd for the 1996 incident were eventually dropped, while his wife, Jeanne, pleaded no contest to a reduced charge.)

People in Redd’s home town of Blanding told local reporters they were outraged by the arrests and the apparent suicide of a respected member of their close-knit community. One resident told the Salt Lake Tribune the government was “making a mountain out of a molehill.” Other area residents told the Deseret News that stumbling upon pieces of Native American pots and arrowheads is common. So is keeping the artifacts.

Ill feelings were on the rise. The Republican attorney general of Utah, Mark Shurtleff, sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder slamming Tolman for not cooperating with local law enforcement authorities in the raids. A spokesman for Shurtleff later told Main Justice he’d reconciled with Tolman. Read our previous story about the dispute here.

Then last Wednesday, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) raised the profile of what had been mostly a local story, rebuking Holder at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Hatch called the raids a “dog and pony show” and added: “I am questioning the motives of some of the higher-ups at Justice and at Interior.” Read our previous story here. Holder defended the raids, saying they were “felony arrests” carried out under standard operating procedures. But Hatch interrupted. “This is a doctor who everybody respected, everybody loved in the community … He was so overwrought by it, he took his life,” the Deseret News reported.

After the dust-up in the Senate Judiciary Committee, federal law enforcement officials in Utah scrambled to hold a news conference to defend their actions. Fuhrman, the FBI agent in charge of Utah, explained that most of the homes authorities had raided had firearms in them. One of the suspects had been recorded during the investigation vowing to kill any federal agent who tried to arrest him.

The story seemed to die down a bit. Then on Friday came the news that Steven L. Shrader, 56, had been found dead behind an elementary school in Shabbona, Ill., after sherriff officers had responded to a call about a despondent man. Shrader had been charged with two felony counts of trafficking a pair of ancient sandals and a basket. Authorities said he apparently shot himself twice in the chest.

Where this is going, who knows. It might fizzle out. Or it could kick off another era of black helicopters conspiracy theories like the ones that dogged Holder’s former boss,  Attorney General Janet Reno, in the 1990s.  In the Bill Clinton era, the department was struggling with law enforcement debacles at Waco, Texas, and the aftermath of Ruby Ridge, Idaho. The Utah raids are not Waco. They are not Ruby Ridge. Federal agents didn’t kill anybody. Still, you never know where matters are going when Westerners start getting really paranoid about the federal government.

mjacoby@mainjustice.com