Overview
Steptoe partner Rachel Cannon was interviewed by The AmLaw Litigation Daily to discuss the recent full dismissal with prejudice of an indictment brought against client Jordan Willing. The case is known as the 'Dinosaur Bones Case.' In the article, "How a Team at Steptoe Helped Unravel the 'Dinosaur Bones' Case," Rachel discusses the strategy behind the defense and the unraveling of the government’s case.
Our client was charged under the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act (PRPA). An issue that quickly arose was that PRPA provided for criminal charges in cases of knowing violations, but the government seemed to be pursuing its case under a negligence theory. "There's 200 years of Supreme Court precedent that says criminal cases can only be brought for knowing violations. And there are a few very, very rare and specific exceptions," Rachel said. "This wasn’t one of them."
The government's case relied heavily on information provided by informants. However, what the informants purportedly said to support probable cause in the search warrant applications wasn’t backed up by the material the government produced in discovery. The defense filed a motion to suppress the evidence seized pursuant to the initial search warrant, and after the government filed a response, prosecutors moved to strike their own response, stating that the factual representations in prosecutors' filing "were inaccurate." Rachel noted that it was "not anything I’ve seen in 25 years of practicing the law."
Ultimately, Rachel said the result "demonstrates the value of persistence."
The Steptoe team included partners Rachel Cannon, Andrew Adams, and Katie Dubyak, along with counsel Meghan Newcomer and associates Brendan Hammond, Dan Podair, Vito Arethusa, Emma Staats, and Emily Tifft.
Visit The AmLaw Litigation Daily to read Rachel's full interview.
