Assistant pleads guilty in historic document theft

By Sarah Brumfield

Associated Press

Published: Thursday, Oct. 27 2011 1:20 p.m. MDT

FILE - This photo provided by the Baltimore Police Dept. shows Barry Landau. A re-arraignment is scheduled in U.S. District Court on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011, for 24-year-old Jason Savedoff, which often indicates a defendant is changing his plea. Savedoff and historian Landau are charged with stealing historical documents from the Maryland Historical Society and conspiring to steal documents from other archives. Both pleaded not guilty and were released.

Baltimore Police Dept., Associated Press

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Summary

A presidential historian's assistant has pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal valuable documents from archives throughout the Northeast.

BALTIMORE — A presidential historian's assistant has pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal valuable documents from archives throughout the Northeast.

Twenty-four-year-old Jason Savedoff entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

Savedoff and historian Barry Landau were charged in July with stealing historical documents from the Maryland Historical Society and conspiring to steal documents from other archives. Both pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors alleged that Landau and Savedoff had about 80 documents when they were arrested in July at the historical society in Baltimore. About 60 belonged to the society, including papers signed by President Abraham Lincoln worth $300,000 and presidential inaugural ball invitations and programs worth $500,000.

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