“Leaders of the popular nonprofit botanical gardens on the bayfront also must run a full-page ad in The American Orchid Society magazine to apologize, send letters to other botanical institutions to tell them how Selby broke the law, and petition the International Botanical Congress to change the name they gave the flower, Phragmipedium kovachii. ”
Article:
Selby pleads guilty in scandal over orchid
Herald TribuneSTAFF REPORT
TAMPA — Selby Botanical Gardens of Sarasota and one of its top scientists formally pleaded guilty Tuesday to accepting and handling a rare orchid the federal government says was smuggled in from Peru.
The plea agreement would mean the gardens will pay a $5,000 fine and must submit to three years’ probation for the misdemeanor charge under the Endangered Species Act.
Leaders of the popular nonprofit botanical gardens on the bayfront also must run a full-page ad in The American Orchid Society magazine to apologize, send letters to other botanical institutions to tell them how Selby broke the law, and petition the International Botanical Congress to change the name they gave the flower, Phragmipedium kovachii.
Barbara Hansen, the chairwoman of Selby’s board of trustees, agreed to the plea deal. She was ill and left without comment immediately after the proceedings in U.S. Magistrate Thomas G. Wilson’s courtroom.
Selby horticulturist Wesley E. Higgins agreed to a plea deal specifying house arrest for six months, probation for a year, and a $2,000 fine. He declined to comment.
Tuesday’s courtroom action merely formalized an agreement reached in December, and settled months of negotiations with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Department of Justice.
A judge is expected to rule on the plea deals at a sentencing hearing in about 75 days. The plea deals were just a recommendation to the court, which could impose harsher penalties.
Also charged in the case was James Michael Kovach, the Virginia nursery owner who brought the orchid to Selby in June 2002 and was indicted in November on charges of possessing the plant and smuggling it into this country. He is scheduled to appear in court next week.
POLLENATRIX 