Judge rules "prosecutors produced no evidence demonstrating Truhls took an arrowhead from out of a grave -- an action specified in the felony charge."

☛ TS Felony grave-looting charge dropped for Truhls

A felony charge against a Eureka man who allegedly removed artifacts from the site of a Yurok ancestral village was dropped Thursday after a Humboldt County judge ruled there was too little evidence to show an arrowhead had been taken out of a grave.

At the conclusion of his preliminary hearing Thursday, James Edward Truhls, 30, was cleared of one felony charge alleging he looted artifacts from out of a grave at an archeological site in Patrick's Point State Park.

Truhls still faces two misdemeanor charges for allegedly removing archeological interests and injuring a work of art.

As Truhls' two-day preliminary hearing came to an end, Judge Joyce Hinrichs ruled prosecutors produced no evidence demonstrating Truhls took an arrowhead from out of a grave -- an action specified in the felony charge.

The charge required prosecutors to show evidence Truhls took an item he knew to be an artifact, which had formerly been located in a grave. Hinrichs said although evidence demonstrated Truhls knew the item was an artifact, it did not show the artifact had been buried with a body.

During her closing statement, Deputy District Attorney Christa McKimmy argued that Truhls “knew it was illegal that he was digging there.”

The evidence, McKimmy said, “clearly indicates that the defendant took at least two, possibly three, items from an area that has been identified as a Native American grave site.”

Hinrichs later ruled that the statute is limited to graves, and does not include grave sites.

”The law requires that it be taken from a grave,” Hinrichs said. “There hasn't been any testimony that says it was taken from a grave.”...

Now, BEAR IN MIND YouTube video leads to graverobber's arrest
The discerning eye of a federal Bureau of Land Management employee and the investigative skills of Patrick's Point State Park Ranger Greg Hall led to the arrest of a Eureka man this week on suspicion of looting archaeological items from an ancient tribal village site.

At the center of the investigation was a video the suspect created and subsequently posted on YouTube showing him digging at the village site within Patrick's Point State Park.

”It was a bragging video,” Hall said.

With a search warrant for YouTube, Hall was able to determine the location of the computer used to upload the video and able to identify the suspect by looking at other videos he had posted, since his face was not readily visible in the looting film.

Hall said he then contacted the property management company who handled the suspect's rental, and was able to obtain his cellular phone number and convince the suspect to come in for questioning.

With another search warrant, state park rangers had searched the suspect's Eureka home earlier in the day and found several artifacts from the North Coast and other areas

☛ TS Preliminary hearing held for man accused of looting burial site
☛ TS Year in Review: A look back at 2008