Great!! Even though I wish this guy was put in jail instead of a halfway house. These thieves & vandals of WBTS items & property must be taught when there caught, there gonna get more than a slap on the wrist!!

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Russ Pritchard Jr. Sentenced to Federal Halfway House in Confederate Uniform Theft Case




May 27, 2002--The defense attorney asked for probation. The prosecutor asked for prison time. U.S. District Judge Petrese B. Tucker in effect split the difference and sentenced Russ Pritchard Jr. to six months in a Federal halfway house, along with restitution and fines amounting to $39,000.




Pritchard, 62, was convicted of "theft from a museum" by a Federal court jury last year in a case which started when a distant relative in Memphis, Tennessee, asked Pritchard to help him appraise a house full of Civil War related items that he had inherited and wanted to convert into a museum.




The charges were an offshoot of an investigation originally targeted against another Pritchard relative, his son, Russ Pritchard III, who was also in the business of buying, selling and appraising Civil War artifacts.




The younger Pritchard and his former business partner, George Juno, pled guilty to a long list of charges involving mail and wire fraud among other transgressions against both sellers and buyers of artifacts. They are scheduled to be sentenced later this summer.




At the elder Pritchard's sentencing Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert E. Goldman argued that probation would not deter other antiques brokers tempted to steal or shade the truth.




"The national collectors and dealers are watching to see what happens," he told the court.




Judge Tucker agreed, telling Pritchard that "Putting you in jail will not accomplish that goal, but neither will putting you on probation."




Defense attorney Thomas A. Bergstrom called the case "nothing short of tragic," the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.




Bergstrom said Pritchard, former director of Philadelphia's Civil War Library and Museum, was duped and his retirement fund looted by his son.




Tucker rejected Bergstrom's plea for probation. Tucker agreed that the elder Pritchard's conduct was an aberration from a law-abiding and illustrious career, but said that fact "does not excuse his crime."




"I'm terribly sorry it happened and I wish it never did," said Pritchard, who now lives in Memphis. At his trial he said that his main expertise was in Civil War weapons, not uniforms or textiles, and that he therefore turned the Memphis uniform over to his son for appraisal.




The uniform in question was that of Confederate Lt. Col. William Randolph Hunt, the ancestor of both Pritchard and William Day, the cousin who inherited the ancestral Hunt-Phelan House. Pritchard has denied any relationship to Day, although he is descended from Hunt.




The building operating for several years as a museum and wedding venue, the last several years with management assistance from Graceland, the Elvis Presley estate located nearby. Eventually Hunt announced that the venture was not attracting sufficient visitation and closed it. The contents were auctioned off and the house itself is still up for sale.




Hunt testified at the elder Pritchard's trial that he gave him the uniform for appraisal, then heard no word on the matter for several months. When he called to inquire, Pritchard told him that the uniform was not authentic but merely a costume of no value, and it had been given to a charity that collected clothing for the poor.




After passing through a number of hands the uniform was eventually bought by the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville for $70,000.




Pritchard Jr. will reimburse $35,000 to the first person who bought the uniform from his son, and pay a $4,000 fine.