France to Put History Professor on Trial for Stolen Documents
A Paris court intends to bring a retired Marquette University history
professor and an accomplice to trial for stealing valuable documents from
the French National Archives in the 1980s. Former Professor John William
Rooney has admitted to taking an archival copy of the 1814 Treaty of
Fontainebleau-by which Napoleon abdicated as emperor of France and agreed to
exile on Elba-to the United States with him, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
reported January 18.
"I took out hundreds of documents from there, if not more," Rooney said in a
mid-January interview, adding, "If you were to stand in front of the
pyramids of Egypt, you might pick up a chip, too."
French authorities launched an investigation of Rooney and his friend,
Marshall Lawrence Pierce, in 1996 after Pierce put the Fontainebleau treaty
and some letters from Louis XVIII up for sale at Sotheby's auction house in
New York. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
sentenced the pair to probation and home confinement in 2002 for conspiring
to sell stolen goods. They were also to pay reparations of $1,000 and
$10,000 respectively, according to the November 28, 2005, Le Monde.
Rooney, who is 74 and currently lives in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, claims he
does not have any other documents that the French archives say are still
missing. The trial will be heard sometime this year, and the pair could be
sentenced up to three years in prison.
The French court seeks to bring charges of receiving stolen goods against
Rooney and Pierce, although authorities admit they have no way to force them
to attend the trial. Drew Wade, a spokesman for the Department of Justice,
said he was not sure whether the United States would extradite the men if
they were sentenced in Paris.