federal agencies, and it was the national guard. the u.s. attorney at the time kevin schieffer, got reporters together in the federal building in rapid city and announced that the seizure was ongoing. the purpose of our action this morning is to preserve the scientific knowledge and integrity of these fossils. then of course the entire press corps hopped in their cars and we drove to hill city. they were supposed to take things related to sue, but they took everything. they went through all of our offices, all of our desks, all of our mail trays, taking mail opened, unopened. somebody called me and said the fbi s got crime scene tape around the institute, and they re taking sue. i hung up the phone, and i went as fast as i could down to the institute. i don t know how many agents they had, 30-some people or whatever. it was just insane. i didn t even think about it. i grabbed the tape and go under it. i just went to the specimen. that was my concern.
people crazy. i do have a fair amount of litigation experience. i have not had courtroom experience. it s a little unclear as to why schieffer decided to seize sue or become interested in it at all. whether it began with morris williams or complaints from the tribe. ultimately the decision was kevin schieffer s to decide that this was something they wanted to do. also shocking from a scientific standpoint that anybody would behave so recklessly with the greatest paleontological find of all time. if the dinosaur seizure wasn t a publicity stunt i don t know what is. there could be a gang in this town with a pairhouse holding a ton of cocaine and human bodies hanging from the rafters and the federal government would not have sent 35 agents and the national guard. sue wasn t a part of what we were looking at or what was being looked at as far as
evidence around that fossil to see whether there s something there that s wrong, chargeable, what more needs to be investigated. fbi agents arrived here in hill city. they presented the black hills institute with a court order. that order demanded the release of more information. but the people at the institute have another name for it. they call it harassment. it should not be allowed to happen. this is the united states of america. so far, no criminal charges have been filed in the case. members of the institute say they re innocent and are hoping that a new administration will put an end to their legal fight over sue. institute officials thought their problems were over when kevin schieffer was replaced as u.s. attorney, but apparently they continue to be the target of the federal government. we have a federal search warrant issued by the u.s. district court and we re serving a search warrant. the enormous amount of money the government is spending to put one person or o
we were fighting on every front you could think of. from the sue freedom run, to petitions we took to the state capitol. i would talk in front of groups anywhere. terry was so involved in this case. i mean, he lived it. one of the most moving things in my life to see was this wonderful group of people here, supported us getting sue back. the u.s. attorney, mr. kevin schieffer, made a terrible error. to come in that tragic day on may 14th, hill city. the right thing to do in this case would be to return the dinosaur to hill city. [ applause ] we ve got now over 20,000 signatures on the one petition, the first petition to bring sue back. and they re from all 50 states and from 14 other countries. a lot of people didn t have a lot of money around here, so
and can t be harvested that s paleontological. you can be all right in this quarter section but if you get off a little bit remember, this is before gps. you get off a little bit to the wrong place, you might be dealing with a whole other set of regulations. the tribe claimed that because morris williams being a member of the tribe had not purchased a $100 permit to sell something, the fossil should be forfeited and therefore they owned the fossil. and of course the government said that it was government property and that that was because of the trust land issue. the seizure and the subpoena were the brainchild of acting u.s. attorney kevin schieffer. he was a controversial figure as u.s. attorney because he hadn t had a lot of experience practicing law. he had the ability to drive some