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Confederate group has 45 days to return 'Silent Sam' to UNC

Confederate Monuments-North Carolina
Gerry Broome/AP
FILE - In this Aug. 20, 2018 file photo, police stand guard after the confederate statue known as Silent Sam was toppled by protesters on campus at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C. Judge Allen Baddour ruled Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020 that the Sons of Confederate Veterans didn’t have standing to bring the lawsuit that led to the hastily arranged deal that gave them possession of the statue known as Silent Sam, along with $2.5 million to maintain it. He vacated the deal and also dismissed the underlying lawsuit brought by the SCV. Critics had questioned how the deal was quietly struck with the UNC Board of Governors and approved just before Thanksgiving. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome, File)
Confederate Monuments-North Carolina
Posted at 9:30 PM, Feb 22, 2020
and last updated 2020-02-22 21:30:55-05

HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. (AP) — A judge has imposed a 45-day deadline on the Sons of Confederate Veterans to return the Silent Sam statue to the University of North Carolina.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour's written order Thursday also requires the group to hand over what's left of a $2.5 million trust fund set up to preserve the statue.

The judge ruled that the Confederate heritage group has no legal claim to the statue, which stood on campus for more than a century until protesters toppled it in August 2018.

The ruling means the UNC system still owns Silent Sam and will need again to figure out what to do with it.

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