Accomplice of Plymouth Meeting Mammoth Tusk Thief Sentenced

Well-known Alaskan wilderness guide Karen Jettmar was sentenced to three years of probation in a U.S. District Court last Friday, after the court found her guilty of helping Plymouth Meeting resident Robert Franz steal a 10,000-year-old mammoth tusk from a state park in 2007, the Alaska Dispatch reports.

Franz, identified as a retired chemist with a net worth of $3 million by Philly.com, also received three years probation in addition to a $100,000 fine and 300 hours of community service when he was sentenced in February. However, Franz, 65, faces far more serious charges of the receipt and possession of child pornography, brought by the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in January 2012. If convicted, Franz faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of five years behind bars.

Authorities proved that Franz and Jettmar removed the mammoth tusk fossil from the northern slope of the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 2007, Philly.com reported. It is illegal under federal law to remove a fossil of any animal with a skeleton from federal lands. The tusk was reportedly valued between $4,000 and $12,000.

Upon executing a search warrant for evidence of the theft at Franz's residence, 169 Wildflower Drive, Plymouth Meeting, in July 2009, agents discovered the alleged child pornography.

According to the Dispatch, Jettmar is a prominent river tour guide and author in Alaska. The court also required her to pay a $30,000 fine and post a notice on her website that it is illegal to take fossils from public lands.

Court documents show that ‪Franz is currently free on bail from the child pornography charges, as his defense attorneys engage in pre-trial motions with federal authorities‬. A request that he be allowed to travel was denied, records show.