Posted on 07/30/2018 3:16:41 PM PDT by Simon Green
Saying they destroyed a priceless artifact, a federal judge on Monday handed out prison terms to the two thieves who eight years ago helped themselves to a 17th century gold bar that had been the centerpiece of a Key West museum.
“It had value for the world,” said U.S. District Court Judge Jose Martinez, during a sentencing hearing for both men at the federal courthouse in Key West.
Richard Steven Johnson will serve 63 months in prison for breaking into a display case at the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in August 2010 and plucking the gold bar from its perch, where museum visitors had been able to reach in and lift it.
Jarred Goldman, who acted as a lookout, got 40 months despite his claim that he never planned to take part in the crime until he was inside the museum with Johnson.
Both were charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and theft of major artwork, which carry a total of 15 years upon conviction.
Johnson told the judge, “I take full responsibility for what I’ve done. When I committed this crime I was a different person. I have no plans of ever committing another crime again.”
Johnson and Goldman apologized to the museum and to the people of Key West for stealing the bar.
“Mr. Goldman is being punished for a really, really bad day that happened eight years ago when he was 24 years old,” Assistant Federal Public Defender Stewart Abrams told the judge.
“He had the chance to walk away and he didn’t,” Martinez said.
Both men must also pay $570,195 in restitution to the museum for the bar, which the museum valued at over $560,000 at the time of the theft. Martinez said he didn’t expect either convict would be able to come up with much money.
Insurance paid the museum about $100,000 for the bar, recovered in 1980 by treasure hunter Mel Fisher and his team from a centuries-old shipwreck off the Florida Keys.
But that insurance payment doesn’t begin to weigh the importance of the bar, which was chopped up and sold off in Las Vegas for pennies on the dollar, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Marcet, who called it “priceless.”
“That’s the point of view of insurance companies and jewelers,” museum CEO Melissa Kendrick testified Monday as Johnson’s attorney Chad Piotrowski argued the bar was worth the rate of gold and no more in an effort to secure a lesser sentence for his client. “As professionals, we don’t see it that way.”
Kendrick said, “The cultural community doesn’t value a Rembrandt for the cost of canvas and the paint.”
A small portion — 1/30th of the total bar, the museum said — was recovered by federal agents with Johnson’s help but it won’t appear in the museum, said its archaeologist, Corey Malcom.
That's what passes for a legal defense?
So if you are having a bad day, say a bad hair day, that is now a legitimate legal excuse for crime?
And they’re White so they are expected to obey the law.
I didn’t do anything! I can’t believe you’re not going to let me go home! You are breaking the law!
You're going to have more than a bad day, son.
I do have my bad days but it doesnt mean Im going to the Ferrari dealership and steal the car.
Probably true, since he has a $half million stashed away. The judge let him off too easy. Should have given him the full 15 years unless he brought the gold bar in intact.
It doesn't appear that they even made him account for it - if he melted it down, who fenced the gold for him, for example.
Where did the photo come from? It shows a woman’s hand grasping the gold bar but it was two men that were charged and convicted.
Yes. If you are a woman and having your period, or are a trans man having your manperiod, it's basically Purge rules. Also, if you are just moody by nature, for example had Liawatha's parents instead told her 'you come from a long line of moody people' rather than people-of-high-cheek-bones, you're in ... and then certainly bipolars are grandfathered in. The recently fired, newly sober alcoholics, and also for example the Croatian World Cup team are others granted temporary bad-day Purge wavers which can be cashed in at most banks and museums not in Singapore.
One of the thieves was named “Goldman”.
I don’t know but I’ve been told
It’s hard to run with the weight of gold
Other hand I’ve heard it said
It’s just as hard with the weight of lead
That's how it was displayed, so visitors could pick it up.
Should’ve been Goldfinger.
Man who stole gold bar from Key West museum blames abuse and cannabis addiction
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/florida-keys/article214963185.html
They must have taken it to this guy.
Not much of an excuse. When I was 24 years old I was repairing front-line fighter aircraft and stationed overseas.
For people who want to watch the entire clip.
That’s Bo Diddley.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLo7tHDHgOc
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