Book People Archive

For Theft of Rare Maps, a Sentence of 42 Months



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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/28/nyregion/28map.html

September 28, 2006 | New York Times

For Theft of Rare Maps, a Sentence of 42 Months

By ALISON LEIGH COWAN

NEW HAVEN, Sept. 27 -- A map dealer who stole nearly 100
rare maps valued at $3 million from Yale and other institutions
was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on Wednesday
after a federal judge credited him for helping the authorities retrieve
most of the items taken.

Representatives of the institutions that were looted, who had traveled
long distances to lobby for a stiff sentence, left the court saying
they were deeply disappointed with the punishment given the map dealer,
Edward Forbes Smiley III. Federal sentencing guidelines suggested that
Mr. Smiley was looking at a term of 57 to 71 months, although the
maximum penalty was 10 years.
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Several also expressed outrage that Mr. Smiley's lawyer, Richard A.
Reeve, wanted his client to be rewarded for helping retrieve what he 
had stolen.

"That cooperation, of course, occurred only after he was caught in the
very act of mutilating books and stealing maps" at Yale, said Professor 
Frank M. Turner on behalf of the university's libraries.

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