Steve Phillips Trial Has Started. UPDATE : found guilty

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ssdsupply

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Feb 20, 2005
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December 5, 2005


Steve Phillips trial started today in Selma, Alabama. We changed judges today and now have a new judge. We also picked a jury today and were in trial for about 3 hours. We didn't tell people that the trial was starting today because it has been continued so many times that we didn't want people to show up for nothing.

Everyone that wants to see what happens that affects us all should come to Selma, Alabama to the Dallas County Courthouse to Judge Wiggins courtroom tomorrow at 9:00 AM. We expect the trial to last until Wednesday.


Hope to see you there,


Spencer Phillips
Southern Skin Divers Supply
4515 5th Ave. South
Birmingham, AL. 35222
205-595-3052
http://www.ssdsupply.com/
 

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Re: Steve Phillips Trial Has Started

Please forgive me but who is Steve Phillips and why should I care about him?
 

Re: Steve Phillips Trial Has Started

This is happening Way TOO often! :'(
The establishment ;D is trying to hog everything! :(
Even though, w/o the Md'ers & TH'ers, they would never find anything!
Most States have laws, prohibiting, using state money to treasure hunt!
So!
These kinds of finds, only happen when "one of us" finds something! ;)
Then they want to grab it!
"We" need to band togather before the "Writting is on the wall" !
I'd gladly donate a few bucks to help the cause (Where can I do so ?) !
How about the rest of you TH'ers/Md'ers ? ::)
Remember:
"If you give'm an inch..They'll take a Mile!"
 

Re: Steve Phillips Trial Has Started

I wasn't aware of this situation. Thanks for the info and please keep us up to date as to how this turns out!

I am aware, however, of the negative impact that the Alabama Historical Commision and their former director, Lee Warner, have had on the state. I had the privilege of meeting the great-great granddaughter of Gen. Joe Wheeler, Lucy Walser, about a year ago and have been to a couple of meetings of the group she leads, the Friends of Joe Wheeler (http://www.wheelerplantation.org/friends_info.htm). The groups focus is the restoration of the home of General Wheeler.

A quick summary of the situation concerning the Wheeler Plantation: In 1994 the Wheeler family donated the general's home to the state for restoration as a museum. Ten years and $2 million later, very little has been done to actually restore the property. It got so bad that the property was closed to visitors in 2000. Other than the restoration of some outbuildings, a lot of the money was spent on consultants to develop a master restoration plan that included a visitor's center. But in the meantime, the main houses and the priceless artifacts inside deteriorated. What good's a visitor's center if there's nothing to visit?! Fortunately, the situation has improved. Lee Warner was replaced as director and the Friends of Joe Wheeler have a more active role. They are desperately trying to raise money in the absence of the money that was earmarked by the state for the restoration then squandered by Lee Warner and Co.

Again, keep us up to date on the situation with Mr. Phillips.

Kent
 

Re: Steve Phillips Trial Has Started

This is the craziest thing i have ever heard of :o I mean diving is one thing, but how can you even enforce the law that anything over 50 years old can be confinscated..that means all the nickles i found in the change i got from the bank would be confinscated if i were in that state ??? Also the part that says anything even on private land can be confinscated, that is impossible to enfore, i eman they cant just go on your property and confinscate your relics...And what about them saying he was found with a stolen pistol? He should be praised for finding a piece or missing property/evidence. I can't belive what this county and its states are turning into! I mean, we let these people with so called "authority" step all over us :-[ I wouldnt have let the bastards confinscate my relics i worked hard to recover >:( Sounds like they are winning though :) If i were them i would continue to fight until that organization was put to death...or at least sue them till theyre broke ;)
 

Re: Steve Phillips Trial Has Started

As a former resident of Alabama, and a current land owner in Colbert County with the original deed in the family name dated 1851, I wish you guys the very best of luck! Go get 'em!!! >:( >:( >:(

I have many artifacts from the Muscleshoals area and some from the river there. I'll be damned if I am going to surrender them. I'll smash them into tiny pieces before I surrender them!!! The way I see it, if they are that interested in historical artifacts, they can go look for them. They say that they belong to the government, but they have never looked for them!

Say someone lost something crossing the river in a ferry in 1955. No one has looked for it or given it any thought for a fifty years. It automatically belongs to the government, but only if I find it? Otherwise nobody knows it exists. That is totally fouled up!!!! Sounds like something the USSR would have pulled in 1970! >:( >:( >:(

GO GET 'EM BOYS!!!!!!
 

Re: Steve Phillips Trial Has Started

THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!
what the heck has happened to this country??????
seems every day we lose another freedom :(
and the population as a whole seems soooooooo apathetic.
Breaks your heart; it does :(

***SURE HOPE STEVE WINS THIS CASE***
 

Re: Steve Phillips Trial Has Started

Article on Monday's trial activity:

http://www.selmatimesjournal.com/articles/2005/12/06/news/local/news2321.txt

Treasure trial continues


By steven jones

Tuesday, December 6, 2005 10:42 PM CST



The Selma Times-Journal

The prosecution turned over their witness to the defense; Erskin Mathis, attorney for Steve Phillips, bulldozed his way to the witness stand, Mickey Mouse tie flailing, to cross examine George Mickey Corson.

"Are you the river police?" Mathis asked.

"No," Corson, a Selma public works employee, replied.


"You were just nosy and sticking your nose in somebody else's business," Mathis barked.

The prosecution objected.

"He doesn't have the right to badger and attack the witness," Dallas County prosecutor Mickey Avery said.

Corson had just finished testifying that he spoke with Phillips, of Vandover, and Perry Massey, a magazine executive from California.

Both men were charged with theft of a cultural resource under a 1999 state law - the Underwater Cultural Resource Act.

According to the law, anyone disturbing, taking or damaging a "cultural resource," usually an archeological or historic artifact, without a permit issued by the state can be charged with a Class B misdemeanor or a Class C felony, depending on the value of the artifact.

According to Corson, he told Phillips on the banks of the Alabama River on Oct. 23, 2003, that it was illegal to dive for artifacts.

"I explained to him there was a law against it," he said. "He (Phillips) said he had a permit and he knew the law."

Phillips didn't have a permit when he and Massey emerged from the river with an 1865 Civil War musket and they were arrested.

Corson testified that he told officials with Old Cahawba Park about the dive trip after speaking to Phillips. They contacted state officials, the district attorney's office and a local conservation officer who actually made the arrest.

Prosecutors presented a witness Monday, Dr. William Shane Lee, who said the rifle pulled out of the mud in the Alabama River was worth an estimated $2,000.

If the jury agrees with him, the charge against Phillips is a Class C felony and if convicted he could face jail time.

Lee, a doctor in a Marion clinic, is also a collector and exhibitor of Civil War artifacts.

He served as a national state park volunteer for 15 years. He minored in military history in college, and later received a master's degree in military strategy. His dissertation was an analysis of Wilson's Raid on Selma.

He said the rifle was a musketoon, shorter than a standard musket, which was originally used by support staff and artillery soldiers.

"Which makes it a bit more rare," he said.

Musketoons were imported from England by both the Union and the Confederacy during the Civil War. Lee testified that tools and dies were also imported and a musketoon factory was established in Tallassee. If the rifle is from Tallassee, which Lee said he had no way of knowing from the photographs, then its value might be even higher.

The defense's argument centered around the validity of the law, which was enforced the first time for this incident.

Matthis asked the state archeologist, Dr. Thomas Mayer an employee of the Alabama Historic Society and a witness for the defense, if the state had authority in the case.

He presented a federal statute stating that the federal Department of the Interior had a final say over what properties were considered eligible, challenging Mayer's statement that the state had authority.

"You told this jury the state made the registry," Mathis said.

"We determine in the state office what is eligible," Mayer replied.

"I guess you can do what you want as long as nobody calls you on it," Mathis said.

"No sir."

While earlier in the trial, Mathis made arguments to the effect that without a listing of eligible historic sites, which isn't publicly available, Phillips couldn't have known he was violating the law.

Mayer, during questioning from the prosecutors, testified that he met with Phillips in 2000 regarding the Underwater Cultural Resources Act.

Phillips, during that meeting, "expressed his dislike" of the law. Mayer said Phillips did not get permission to excavate any site in the state during that meeting.

Mayer was called in when Phillips was arrested. He testified that he spoke to him then.

"Mr. Phillips asserted that he had a permit from Dr. Weaver," Mayer said. "He asserted that I had to give him a permit right then. I declined to do so."

The discrepancy between state and federal regulations was cleared up by Elizabeth Brown, interim director of the Alabama Historic Society.

"I'm happy to do (the job) on a short-term basis," she said.

She said that Mathis was correct in stating the Department of the Interior was the keeper of the national historic Registry, but a different section of the statute gave state authorities more leeway.

"The whole process really runs without the keeper of the Registry," she said.

She said the list of eligible sites isn't publicly available to protect them from potential looters, but if a potential excavator wants to find out, the Society can provide them with details about a particular site on a case by case basis.

Later the trial recessed until 9 a.m. today, when the witnesses for the defense will be called.

Mathis said he felt really good about his chances in the case.

"I don't think (the state) proved their case," he said. "I'll make a motion (to dismiss the charges) to that effect tomorrow."

He feels like the state hasn't proven that the site is eligible for listing on the state or national Historic Registry. Without that proof, Mathis said there is no charge against his client.

"Phillips has never denied diving anywhere," he said.
 

Re: Steve Phillips Trial Has Started

The state has the upper hand in this one due to they have the tax payers money to go after this guy. In a way the tax dollars of other treasure hunters are used against him. Not taking sides, just posting facts.
 

Re: Steve Phillips Trial Has Started

capt bill has a very good idea....any chance the moderators or some trustworthy soul appointed by them could start a collection of money and signatures for the defense of one of our own down in alabama ? if so i will be the second to contribute, right behind bill....................gldhntr
 

Re: Steve Phillips Trial Has Started

Add my name to the list of Mr. Phillips's supporters. Alabama legislators should wake up to the fact that they have a ridulous law on their books.
-Frank Jackson
 

Re: Steve Phillips Trial Has Started

One of the things that infuriates me about this is the vagueness of which sites are off limits. There's this "secret list" that they won't make public "to protect them from potential looters". But, if you happen to retrieve an artifact from one of these secret sites, they'll get you. So basically it's so ill-defined they can make it up as they go.
 

Re: Steve Phillips Trial Has Started

This is a case where everyone of us should be supporting Steve Phillips. Whether by writing to the state or congressmen ,contributions to his defense. Not one of us should be sitting idle while this is continuing to take place. We all are very loud when it comes to stating our opinions...now we need to unite ?and let them know that there are alot of people out here who disagree with what they are trying to do. When we let the government take a right away ...it affects us all in the end.
This sentence alone in the testimony says it all"

While earlier in the trial, Mathis made arguments to the effect that without a listing of eligible historic sites, which isn't publicly available, Phillips couldn't have known he was violating the law."

This alone is a great way for the state to make money.....don't make anything public knowledge and then fine us when we inadvertently violate a unknown territory .
I am not sure about the rest of the states...but try calling the the state on treasure detecting and retrieval laws once.....you get the run around...or placed on hold ?for days .....and nothing will be sent that leaves ?a paper trail.
 

Re: Steve Phillips Trial Has Started

Vito, so they had discussed similar things on forums in Europe, and the goverments there shut the forums down?
 

Re: Steve Phillips Trial Has Started

Thanks Vito, I'm pulling down my avatar right now.
 

Re: Steve Phillips Trial Has Started

qoute from above ...............''This is a case where everyone of us should be supporting Steve Phillips. Whether by writing to the state or congressmen ,contributions to his defense. Not one of us should be sitting idle while this is continuing to take place. We all are very loud when it comes to stating our opinions...now we need to unite and let them know that there are alot of people out here who disagree with what they are trying to do. When we let the government take a right away ...it affects us all in the end. ''.......................amen, halleluleah and come on fellows lets let the mighty government know steve phillips is not alone !!!........all you detector dealers should consider the repercussions of this and help the man and all of us in this hobby too....sending the payment for one detector purchase would not even be noticed by the likes of a few of the big sellers come inventory time , but might go a long way towards preserving our hobby and their livelyhood............gldhntr.
 

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