Posted by Joe Diver on August 27, 19101 at 11:15:03:
In Reply to: Roscinco posted by Ed Holt on August 24, 19101 at 21:27:21:
I haven't heard anything, but I have to say that it was pretty creepy of Paul to go to a well known shipwreck, found many years ago by others and then try to legally claim it solely to avoid prosecution. If I get caught stealing from the wreck of the Wisconsin off Kenosha, can I claim that I found it to avoid prosecution and force the taxpayers to prove that I don't own it?
All Paul did was make himself a pariah in the Great Lakes dive community and cost Wisconsin taxpayers a lot of money.
I simply can't understand why Paul would try to set such a selfish and destructive precedent. If he is able, through some loophole, to secure ownership of the Rosinco, the results would be catastrophic for historic Great Lakes wrecks and for the Great Lakes wreckdiving industry. His assertion is much worse than the old finders/keepers ethic. He is actually raiding a wreck found by someone else that was already protected by State law.
Just because Paul may be able to wriggle through loopholes in the law, it still doesn't make it right or good public policy. Paul's pursuance of the Rosinco boils down to plain selfishness on his part. He should have simply paid the fines when he got caught stealing and crawled back into his hole. He would have saved the taxpayers a lot of money and there would have been one less challenge to the already tenuous protection that our Great Lakes shipwreck have from souvenir hunters.
: I just heard that there may have been a resolution in the court case over the ownership of the Roscinco. Has anyone heard about this and do you know what the outcome was?
: Thanks,
: Ed