Online seller
of skull
to apologize

The California man says
he did not intend
to offend Hawaiians

LOS ANGELES » A man who tried to sell the 200-year-old skull of a native Hawaiian warrior on eBay was sentenced yesterday to 600 hours of community service and ordered to publish an apology in several Hawaii newspapers.

Jerry David Hasson of Huntington Beach must also pay more than $13,000 and post the same apology on an eBay bulletin board dedicated to archaeological memorabilia.

Hasson pleaded guilty in January to a federal charge of engaging in interstate commerce with illegally unearthed archaeological items.

Hasson, 56, told U.S. District Judge Howard Matz that he tried to sell the skull because he had been diagnosed with cancer and needed more money.

"I wasn't aware, I wasn't knowledgeable about how Hawaiians feel about native remains," Hasson said in court.

John Fryar, a special agent with the Bureau of Indian Affairs who investigated the case, has said Hasson obtained the skull when he visited Kaanapali Beach on Maui as a teenager in 1969, at a time when Whalers Village, a shopping center, was being built.

He had sneaked onto the beach with friends and found an entire skeleton -- but only took the skull, Hasson wrote in his original posting on eBay.

Fryar said Hasson decided to sell it after he saw the prices human skulls were getting on the Internet.

In February 2004, he started the bidding on eBay.com at $1,000 and set an immediate purchase price of $12,500, according to 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."

A native Hawaiian saw the offering and told Hasson to remove it, which he did.

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 repatriation and reburial of native Hawaiian remains and artifacts, said he e-mailed Hasson that selling a skull was illegal under federal laws.

Fryar later contacted Hasson about the skull. Hasson told him that although he'd removed the ad from eBay, he was now offering the skull directly to "a handful of bidders."

In a detailed affidavit, 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.

Hasson allegedly e-mailed Fryar that he had recently learned that the auction of the skull was offensive to native Hawaiians and he had chosen to take it off eBay and sell it privately, the affidavit said.

Fryar's affidavit said Hasson related that his attorney had said 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.

The skull will be returned to Hawaii with a portion of the money from Hasson's fee.