For James Godwin, it wasn’t about the money - or even the fossil.

The Wichita Falls anesthesiologist and fossil enthusiast certainly values his Tyrannosaurus bataar skull. But for him, challenging the government’s attempt to take it from him was about principle as well as basic property rights.

“In this country, the government should not be able to walk into your house on some third party’s word and take your property,” Godwin said in an interview Tuesday.

His perseverance paid off.

A federal judge in Fort Worth ruled on Monday in Godwin’s favor after a one-day trial last week over whether the large dinosaur skull should remain with Godwin or be returned to Mongolia from where it was allegedly unearthed years ago.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor agreed with Godwin’s argument that the U.S. attorney’s office waited too long to file its 2017 forfeiture lawsuit, thus violating the five-year statute of limitations.

The government had said that Godwin’s 70 million-year-old dinosaur skull, which belonged to an Asian relative of Tyrannosaurus rex, was among a group of dinosaur fossils stolen from Mongolia years ago.

Godwin, 76, is believed to be the first U.S. owner of a Mongolian dinosaur fossil to contest a government forfeiture action since authorities began cracking down in 2012 on the little-known black market in dinosaur bones.

Since the investigation began, numerous specimens have been returned to Mongolia, and two men were convicted in federal court of smuggling fossils into the U.S. after pleading guilty to the charges against them.

Michael A. Villa Jr., Godwin’s Dallas-based attorney, said a “lack of clarity” over ownership issues related to Mongolian dinosaur fossils remains. The U.S. attorney’s office, he said, cited in court filings a “patchwork” of Mongolian laws that changed over the decades and underwent several different translations in the process.

“And somehow my non-lawyer client is supposed to know all this,” Villa said.

O’Connor, in a recent ruling in the case, wrote that he made no findings as to whether Mongolian law was violated.

The U.S. attorney’s office released a statement Tuesday saying it respects the judge’s decision.

“As the judge noted, our case established probable cause for the forfeiture of the bataar skull, which was stolen from Mongolia for purposes of the National Stolen Property Act and brought into the United States illegally. The Northern District of Texas will continue to vigorously pursue cases involving the theft of cultural property.”

Villa said one of the government’s own experts wrote in a publication that he’d seen dinosaur fossils being sold openly in Mongolian markets. The expert, he said, also wrote that pieces of bataar fossils have been found in China, Kazakhstan and Russia.

Villa said he will ask the government to immediately return his client’s fossil, which is currently being housed in a Montana museum.

Godwin said he will return the skull to its rightful place on a display stand in the museum room of his Wichita Falls house.

“The fundamental premise of this country is that I have a right to my property ... and due process,” he said.

'I felt violated'
Godwin, who has a passion for nature and amateur paleontology, acquired the bataar skull from a Wyoming store he partly owns.

The government's investigation began when someone called federal agents in 2012 to report seeing a bataar skull for sale in the store for $320,000, court records show.

The government brought its lawsuit involving Godwin's fossil under the National Stolen Property Act, which often is used to prosecute antiquities trafficking.

Under the law, the government has five years from the time an offense is discovered to bring a forfeiture lawsuit.

O’Connor ruled that the government discovered the alleged offense when agents prepared a warrant in July 2012 to seize Godwin's fossil. Therefore, that was when the clock had begun ticking on the statute of limitations, the judge said in his ruling.

The U.S. attorney's office, which had argued that the start date occurred later, filed its forfeiture suit in August 2017.

Homeland Security Investigations said that Godwin's bataar skull had been unearthed from the Nemegt Basin in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia between 2000 and 2011, according to the forfeiture lawsuit. It ended up in the hands of a U.S. citizen living in Japan and was sold several more times before turning up in Godwin’s home, according to court records.

Godwin said that -- in an unnecessary show of force -- armed agents showed up at his house to seize the skull in summer 2013.

“I felt violated,” he said.

Godwin said that prior to a 2012 criminal case in New York involving a different bataar skull, he never considered the legality of owning such a fossil. Mongolian fossils had been sold in the U.S. “for a long time,” he said. Some are currently on view in U.S. museums, he added.

“There was no suggestion at any time that there was anything wrong with it,” he said about selling such dinosaur fossils.

Federal agents displayed a dinosaur fossil that was among more than 18 returned to Mongolia after being seized in the U.S.(ICE)
Federal agents displayed a dinosaur fossil that was among more than 18 returned to Mongolia after being seized in the U.S. (ICE)
Godwin said he belongs to a small community of fossil collectors who are “meticulously honest, law-abiding citizens.” He said he doesn’t recall any discussion about the legality of Mongolian dinosaur fossils prior to 2012.

Federal agents, he said, had woven a grand conspiracy theory involving smuggled dinosaur fossils.

“That ain’t the way it is,” Godwin said.

Godwin said that when he announced his victory in the hospital where he works, he got “hugs and high fives all around.”

Villa said the issue will have to remain murky. No court has ever ruled on what laws were violated in the trade of Mongolian dinosaur fossils in the U.S., he said.

Robert Painter, a Houston lawyer who represented the Mongolian government during the investigation, said there are no other ongoing custody disputes involving his client’s fossils in the U.S. He said more than 100 fossils were returned to Mongolia during the investigation.

Painter added that while he’s disappointed that the North Texas dispute ended with a technical ruling, he’s glad that none of Godwin’s other defenses prevailed.

“Everyone in the paleontology community should know that Mongolian law is well understood, and the U.S. government will prosecute cases involving stolen fossils,” he said.

Published Date:2018-11-28