The film "Dinosaur 13" brought paleontologist Pete Larson's legal blemish back into the public eye and spurred a push for President Barack Obama to give him a pardon.
back to south dakota by the end of the year to cover the story and see what was going to happen to it. america s indian tribes have fought the white man over many different issues through the years, but the newest fight is over a dinosaur. it was a big story and a very unusual story. come in and seize sue, everything exploded. controversy tonight. controversy surrounding the institute and their most famous discovery. it may be the custody battle of the century. scientists, indians, the u.s. government. you find any fossils, the government may take them away. not only has he taken this dinosaur away, but he s taken our research away too, every photograph, every record we had about this dinosaur and the locality where she was found. sue was seized pursuant to a search warrant, but there was never a crime charged. pat and i talked about filing suit. you know, we sued the federal government for return of our property. the black hills institute
if she wasn t going to be in black hills where she morally should be, field museum was a good place. this was just the kind of place that we felt sue had to go to. my reaction was relief that that specimen wound up where the public and scientific community will have access to it. i think it s probably the second best place she could have been. it s going to go where millions of people would see her. she s not going to be in prison anymore. sue is free. and people can see her and they can get the same excitement that i have for her, and they can love her just like i do. to me, the dinosaur still belongs in hill city. pete s the kind of guy who can go out and find half a dozen
our place to prevent damage. you just tell me and that fossil won t go anywhere. it s not like it s going to disappear in a briefcase. that request was denied. it is clearly a violation under the antiquities act to remove antiquities from united states lands without the permission of the united states. the federal government doesn t show up with the national guard and an assistant, or pardon me, an acting united states attorney in pancake makeup with the intention of working things out somewhere down the road. after we got over the initial shock, those of us who were packing the dinosaur kind of went into our packing mode, but towards the end of the day, it became obvious that something was going on with the town. people around town noticed. they noticed all the cop cars.
security agencies are well-trained and equipped and responding in a thorough and professional manner. we will provide regular updates as further information becomes available. that coming from australian prime minister tony abbott, saying that they are monitoring the situation, that they are prepared to deal with it. again, our affiliate on the ground there in sydney saying at least 13 hostages are potentially inside. we will bring you the latest on this as soon as we have it. i want to turn to other news as we continue to gather our resources on the ground there in sydney. if you missed the premier of an extraordinary film, dinosaur 13, it s at 9:00 eastern right here on cnn. it follows the unbelievable tale of sue, the t-rex and her discovery and how it led to a serious federal charge against many who found her as you ll see from this clip in the film. once you start to understand