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Four people from Texas charged with tampering with and theft of dinosaur bones in May 2015 from Bureau of Land Management lands in Wayne County have resolved their cases with pleas in abeyance.

A counselor and others from McLennan Community College, a Waco-based school that sends students to Utah for summer geology field trips, had visited the Mars Desert Research Station and the Burpee dinosaur quarry, about 10 miles northwest of Hanksville.

On the weekend of May 23, 2015, the 53-year-old counselor and others associated with a McLennan field trip, including students, removed fossils and took them back to Texas, according to the BLM.

They also were accused of damaging the area surrounding the dinosaur bones. Bureau of Land Management agents made successful efforts to locate and seize the dinosaur bones, according to the Utah Attorney General's Office, which prosecuted the case.

On Friday in 6th District Court in Loa, the four entered guilty pleas in abeyance to theft and criminal mischief counts and agreed to pay restitution of $6,417.84.

The counselor and another nonstudent were not acting as instructors, but rather served as "sponsors" on the trip, college president Johnette McKown has said.