
A media release said that while on probation, 81-year-old Michael Quarrel will be banned from lands managed by the BLM.
Quarrel also was ordered to pay over $1,500 in restitution to cover the cost of damages he caused to an archaeological resource while committing his crime of conviction.
The sentence was imposed based on a guilty plea entered by Quarrel on January 15th to a felony charge of violating the Archeological Resource Protection Act on September 30th, 2013, by excavating, removing and damaging an archaeologic resource located on federal lands within Luna County.
Quarrel admitted to removing several pieces of broken Mimbres pottery from the land, thus causing damage to the archaeological resource.
Court records reflect this is Quarrel’s second conviction for violating the Archeological Resource Protection Act. In 2003, Quarrel was sentenced to two years of probation for illegally excavating in an archeological site in the Gila National Forest.