[CPProt.net] Filing: 25 space relics sold at auction and proceeds not turned over to museum

[MSN CPPnet]

Posted on Thu, Jun. 23, 2005   
 

Filing: 25 space relics sold

BY STAN FINGER
The Wichita Eagle

Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Center co-founder Max Ary sold at auction at
least 25 space artifacts that had been removed from the Hutchinson museum's
collection and did not turn the proceeds over to the Cosmosphere, a recently
unsealed court document states.

The affidavit seeking permission to search Ary's house in Oklahoma City in
December 2003 claims that Ary requested that certain artifacts be removed
from two safes and stored instead in the museum's main storage area. The
majority of the artifacts later went missing.

The affidavit was unsealed earlier this month by the U.S. District Court in
Oklahoma City.

Ary, 55, faces 19 federal charges of stealing and selling artifacts from the
museum he helped create and led for 27 years before leaving in 2002. He has
pleaded not guilty, and his trial is scheduled for October.

"We think the affidavit reflects that the Cosmosphere gave Max very broad
authority when he was there, and much of this investigation stems from
second-guessing and hindsight after he went to a competing institution," Lee
Thompson, one of Ary's lawyers, said Wednesday.

Only months after leaving the Cosmosphere, Ary was hired as executive
director of Kirkpatrick Science and Air Space Museum at Omniplex in Oklahoma
City. He has taken a leave from that job while the court case unfolds.

"It appears that the investigation was prompted by claims that the
Cosmosphere owned all the property sold at auction," Thompson said, a
position "which will be vigorously disputed at trial."

Ary, 55, faces two counts of wire fraud, six counts of mail fraud, three
counts of money laundering, two counts of theft of government property and
four counts of interstate transportation of stolen property. The government
is seeking the forfeiture of any proceeds and property Ary obtained from the
alleged crimes.

U.S. District Court Judge J. Thomas Marten last week denied Ary's motion
asking that prosecutors turn over a complete list of reasons why he is
charged with stealing artifacts from the museum. Ary's lawyers had argued
that the indictment against him was so vague that they were having trouble
preparing a defense.

Marten ruled that the indictment offered sufficient details and factual
allegations, particularly considering that the prosecution disclosed 15,000
pages of evidence to the defense late last month.

"There is no concern that the defendant will be unable to prepare his
defense, be surprised at trial, or plead double jeopardy," Marten wrote in a
memorandum and order dated Tuesday and filed on Wednesday.

Prosecutors also agreed to write a letter answering Ary's questions as to
what artifacts are in question in each criminal count.

"We felt as though we achieved much of what we were looking for," Thompson
said.