Charges filed in
eBay skull case
Federal prosecutors
say a California man
put the item up for bid
A California man was criminally charged yesterday for allegedly trying to sell on eBay.com what he claimed was the skull of a 200-year-old Hawaiian warrior.
Jerry David Hasson, 55, of Huntington Beach allegedly started the bidding at $1,000 and set an immediate purchase price of $12,500 last February, according to a statement issued yesterday by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.
Along with a picture of the skull, a description of it ran on eBay that said the skull came from "one of King Kamehameha's bloody battle sites in his war to unite the Hawaiian Islands in the 1790s."
Hasson also wrote on eBay, "For the last 34 years, I've kept this 200-year-old Hawaiian warrior as a souvenir of my youth, but now it's time to give it up to the highest bidder."
Hasson was charged yesterday with illegally trying to sell the skull and therefore criminally violating the federal Archaeological Resources Protection Act. Hasson faces a maximum fine of $250,000 and a maximum federal prison term of five years.
Hasson did not return telephone calls to his home.
Assistant U.S. Attorney William Carter said Hasson will be arraigned in about two weeks.
In a telephone interview, John Fryar, a special agent with the Bureau of Indian Affairs who investigated the case, said Hasson obtained the skull when he was a teenager visiting Kaanapali Beach on Maui in 1969 during the time when Whalers Village, a shopping center, was being built.
Fryar said that Hasson decided to sell it "when he saw the prices of human skulls selling on the Internet."
Edward Halealoha Ayau, a spokesman for Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawaii Nei ("group caring for the ancestors of Hawaii"), a native Hawaiian organization involved in the reparation and reburial of native Hawaiian remains and artifacts, said yesterday that several people alerted him by e-mail when the skull went on eBay.
"It looked Hawaiian," said Ayau describing the picture of the skull. "I wouldn't have done anything if it hadn't looked Hawaiian."
Ayau said he e-mailed Hasson that selling a skull was illegal under federal laws.
"I pleaded for him to take it off the Internet," said Ayau.
Ayau said yesterday he then contacted federal agents. Once the skull is no longer needed as evidence, it will be reburied, said Ayau.
Hui Malama is supporting a federal investigation of the alleged theft of artifacts from a burial cave on the Big Island. The artifacts allegedly showed up for sale in July on the black market.
In a detailed affidavit of his investigation, Fryar said that after being alerted to the sale, he started posing on the Internet as an interested buyer from New Mexico named John Garcia.
The affidavit said Hasson allegedly e-mailed back that he had recently learned that the auction of the skull was offensive to native Hawaiians and had chosen to take it off eBay and sell it privately.
According to Fryar's affidavit, Hasson told him that his attorney told him that if he gave the skull as a gift, he might not violate laws.
The affidavit details the negotiations Fryar alleges he had with Hasson.
It says Hasson suggested that Fryar or a friend buy a comic Fanzine online for the price of the skull, and "then I will GIFT to you the skull. That way there's no connection whatsoever."
Fryar agreed to buy a Fanzine, believed to be worth about $20, for $2,500. Hasson sent the skull Federal Express to Fryar.
According to the affidavit, Hasson said he was a teenager during the excavations for Whalers Village. He said that he and two others evaded guards and sneaked into the site one night. He said he dug into the sand and found part of a leg and kept digging until he found the skull.
The affidavit also quoted Hasson saying "right next to this skeleton, there were some warrior artifacts ... like hatchets and stuff like that, but I was afraid to take those things, I left those in the sand."
