Twice Barry and April James have seen everything they own put at peril.

On June 27, 1990, a fast-moving 4,500-acre arson fire devastated their neighborhood and, like thousands of others that day, the family lost their home and it's entire contents. Gone were four generations worth of a family's mementos - pictures, heirlooms and keepsakes. Gone also were the entire inventory and records of a business they had operated from the home as well as book manuscripts, original art and valuable antiques.

They had escaped the conflagration with the clothes on their backs, the vehicles they fled in, and the family pets. But at least they'd all lived. Others had not been so fortunate that day.

Barry James is an internationally respected Paleontologist specializing in re-articulating the fossil bones of dinosaurs, ice-age mammals and other extinct creatures. Specimens prepared for exhibit by Barry and his assistants remain on display in museums and collections both large and small all over the globe. But that day, many rare specimens -- some already paid for by museums and awaiting shipping, were consumed by the fire.

Lost as well were Barry's personal and teaching collections, the latter materials used in the hands-on demonstrations and lectures he is still in great demand to present. In the profound shock they experienced, it seemed to the family that they could never recover.

But six years later Barry and April James had rebuilt their lives and their business - thanks to an inner strength they had always possessed but had never needed to discover. And thanks as well to countless friends who contributed household goods and the materials needed for everyday living, to businesses who offered their services and products for free, at reduced rates and with deferred payments.

Friends, colleagues, suppliers and past customers sent fossils and geologic specimens (some of which had been originally obtained through the couples business), so that the couple could start rebuilding an inventory for their catalog and their personal collections.

The incredible outpouring of kindness helped to heal broken spirits and reinforce a belief of the basic goodness and desire to do right in most people -- a philosophy of the couple recognized by their friends, neighbors, business associates and customers.

But today, they face a far more insidious threat than that summer inferno twelve years ago, one that has brought them to the breaking point and the very brink of disaster and despair. Today this new danger has destroyed their once-thriving business and left them nearly destitute. And like the fire, this disaster was sparked by a single person for his own purposes.

An overzealous federal prosecutor, wielding the immense resources of the United States government and intending to win at any cost, is even now burying the couple in court filings and taking other actions that can only be intended to render the James insolvent and discomfit their friends and associates. Seemingly, the only way that the prosecution feels it can prevail is to force the couple to give up before the case can go to trial and receive the judicial scrutiny it so clearly requires.

It is alleged by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Overby that in 1990 Barry James told two Utah residents that it was acceptable to remove fossil material from Bureau of Land Management land and "deputized" them to do so.

These "witnesses," under investigation in an unrelated case, have since recanted their accusations and have admitted under oath that they perjured themselves on many points when they implicated Mr. James. But due to a quirk in Utah State law, the clock on the statute of limitations does not run during a period that the accused is out-of-state. Since James does not live in Utah, he may still be charged with a crime that allegedly occurred in 1990.

The fossils at the center of this case were fragmentary Allosaurus remains in matrix (enclosed in rock) when purchased from Mr. Orean Barney or Richland, Utah and were prepared by Barry James and eventually sold to a Japanese museum. Orean Barney was a well-known fossil-hunter and father to one of the perjured witnesses. Mr. Barney gave Mr. James documentation that the fossils were in fact from private land and thus could be legally sold. In an initial interview, James informed FBI agents of this and indicated that they should question Orean Barney "to clear things up."

One-and-one-half years later, the elderly Orean Barney died. The FBI and prosecutors had never contacted or questioned him in that time.

To combat the flawed allegations, the Jameses have hired attorneys both in Utah and in their own home state of Pennsylvania. Very quickly, the legal expense of dealing with numerous filings by Overby's office drained nearly all of their resources. In desperation, the couple prepared to sell their 10-acre farm, home and workshop.

After learning of this development, the Federal Prosecutor moved to seize the property. Without informing him that the key federal witnesses had recanted their perjured testimony, prosecutors were able to persuade U.S. District Court Judge Dee Benson that it was likely that the couple would defraud the government if they were permitted to sell the property to pay legal fees.

In an interview with The Deseret News' reporter Jerry Spangler, Defense Attorney Bradshaw characterized to the strategy as a "scorched earth" approach that, using the "awesome resources of the Federal Government, they have rendered Barry and April James destitute." "They have destroyed their business, destroyed their reputations, taken their property and buried them" - referring to the barrage of motions and actions involving the Jameses, their family, friends and neighbors.

Prosecutors have charged Barry James with felony theft and misdemeanor violation of antiquity laws in the State of Utah. In Federal Court, both of the Jameses have been charged for civil violations, with prosecutors seeking $2.1 million dollars in damages. A judge has put the civil case on hold until the determination in the criminal cases, but Overby's office continues to bury the couple, their friends, family, and even neighbors in motions and subpoenas.

But the couples' accusers will not be charged. As Utah residents the statute of limitations on their confessed crimes have since expired.

Defense attorneys have petitioned the 7th District Court in Utah to be named as court-appointed attorneys.

Members of the Pennsylvania state congressional delegation have been informed of the conduct of the Assistant U.S. Attorney. At their request, The Office of Legislative Affairs in the Justice Department has begun an inquiry into whether the government prosecutor has abused his authority in this case.

A defense and assistance fund has been set up to permit those who are able to contribute to this cause.

In a telephone interview James stated that he just wanted his day in court "to prove that these charges are false." But he stated that his hard-won reputation as a professional earth scientist is ruined and his business with museums is finished, "They believe me, but they just can't ever deal with me again."