ROME (AP).- A defense lawyer says a Rome judge has ended the trial of a former J. Paul Getty Museum antiquities curator because the statute of limitations on charges against her have expired.
Alessandro Vannucci said the eight-year-long limit against Marion True ran out in July, and the judge at Wednesday's hearing in Rome, the first since summer, agreed with True's defense team that the trial should no longer proceed.
True had denied charges she had conspired to illicitly traffic in ancient artifacts from Italy. The trial began in 2004 against her and fellow American defendant art dealer Robert Hecht.
Vannucci, who is defending Hecht, said the trial will continue against his client on charges he headed an antiquities trafficking operation. Hecht also says he is innocent.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
