[meteorite-list] Trial Unveils Dreams Dashed On Moon Rocks

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:22:33 2004
Message-ID: <200306041629.JAA01728_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/custom/space/orl-locmoonrocks04060403jun04,0,511788.story

Trial unveils dreams dashed on moon rocks
By Pedro Ruz Gutierrez
Orlando Sentinel
June 4, 2003

One of NASA's brightest interns turned out to be a lousy crook.

Thad Roberts, 26, was working toward three college degrees. But when he
tried to fence a batch of stolen moon rocks, he made mistakes that would make
the dumbest hoodlum blush.

"I'm just hoping you don't have a wire on you," Roberts joked when he met an
undercover FBI agent last summer to sell the rocks at bargain prices. Later, he
said, "I think they're trying to trick me. You know, just catch me."

FBI Agent Lynn Billings sat across from him at an International Drive chain
restaurant, posing as the relative of a Belgian minerals collector who had
contacted the FBI.

Roberts, who reached a plea bargain in NASA's biggest case of grand theft
involving space material, didn't count on the FBI ensnaring him and two other
NASA interns in a sting operation.

On Tuesday, the single-engine pilot who dreamed of becoming an astronaut
and impressed NASA's supervisors with his knowledge of geology and
physics testified against former friend Gordon McWhorter, who authorities
say helped find buyers for the stolen space material.

"They could make a movie of my life," Roberts continued in excerpts played
for the jury at McWhorter's trial, which ends today in federal court in
Orlando.

Billings played along: "You sound very adventurous. Your girlfriend must be
very adventurous."

The din of servers with dishes, piano music, patrons' conversations, the voices
of Roberts and later that of his girlfriend, Tiffany Fowler, and McWhorter
could not mask the sense of euphoria.

Roberts, Fowler, 26, and Shae Saur, 20 -- all former student employees at
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration -- have already pleaded
guilty to conspiracy to commit theft and interstate transportation of stolen
property.

In the sting, McWhorter, 27, joked that he tipped a waitress $30 just to make
her day. Roberts said he was so excited he could not finish his meal and offered
it to Fowler, who giggled and sounded giddy in front of the FBI pair posing as
buyers.

"This is a life-changing event," said FBI Agent Lawrence Wolfenden as he
played the role of the brother of a real-life minerals enthusiast in Antwerp,
Belgium.

The clandestine restaurant meeting took place July 20, the same day the trio
was arrested at a local hotel parking lot and charged in one of the most daring
thefts from a lab at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

On the stand, Roberts recounted how he recruited McWhorter in the spring of
2002 at the University of Utah and later broke into NASA's Lunar sample
laboratory.

"I took my girlfriend and a friend on July 13," Roberts recalled. "And came
out with the whole five-drawer cabinet and the whole safe."

Roberts and Billings were among 10 government witnesses called to testify in
the case against McWhorter.

Among the precious vials the thieves stored in a fishing-tackle gear box are
seven grams of the renowned Martian meteorite "ALH84001" -- which some
scientists say may hold microscopic fossil evidence of extraterrestrial life.

"It's the Holy Grail of the meteorite-collecting community," said Russell
Kempton, who runs the New England Meteoritical Services, a supplier of
prepared meteorites, after testifying that the Martian samplings are worth
$1.4 million based on a 1997 appraisal.

The rest of the stolen moon samples, which Roberts attempted to sell for
$2,000-$8,000 a gram, are valued in the millions of dollars.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachelle DesVaux Bedke attempted to portray
McWhorter as more than a casual friend who was invited to Orlando by his
former acquaintances. DesVaux used an exchange of e-mails between
McWhorter and Roberts to establish that the pair had planned to find buyers
for the moon items months ahead.

Eleven months after the arrests, Roberts cannot shake off the experience.

"That's all I have thought about," he said after 319 days in custody.

Roberts, who was a junior at the University of Utah, said he has used his days
in jail to work on a novel.

"It's based on truth, but it's embellished," Roberts admitted under
questioning from a prosecutor.

Roberts said he plans to make his story "more grandiose and more
entertaining" at the suggestion of a fellow inmate and will make it available
online for prospective publishers.

Roberts and Billings were among 10 government witnesses called to testify in
the case against McWhorter, who faces up to 10 years in prison and $250,000
in fines on charges of conspiring to sell stolen government property and
transporting it across state lines.

Henry Pierson Curtis of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Pedro
Ruz Gutierrez can be reached at pruz_at_orlandosentinel.com or
407-420-5620.
Received on Wed 04 Jun 2003 12:29:49 PM PDT