By: Matthew Brown, Associated Press
BILLINGS, MT. (AP).- A federal judge threw out a lawsuit claiming federal agents illegally raided Montana’s Custer Battlefield Museum during an investigation into the alleged sale of fraudulent battlefield artifacts and eagle feathers. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Cebull dismissed as frivolous claims by museum director Christopher Kortlander that the raids were illegal and the agents had violated his constitutional rights. Two dozen federal agents who participated in the raids in 2005 and 2008 were mentioned in the lawsuit. The investigation closed in 2009 with no charges filed. Eagle feathers and parts seized in one of the raids by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have not been returned to Kortlander, who has another case pending to get them back. The U.S. attorney’s office, which defended the agents, declined to comment on Cebull’s ruling bec