| Show f SCHEltlE TOO TO-O THE STATE I Legislative Committee Report on the Defalcation BIG CONSPIRACY PROVEN trOTUI AMOTOTT STOLEN A1UOUliTBD ff TO NEARLY 25000 S t tf Defaulting Trcnsnrcr Loaned Money tl to Serpral State Officials and 1 Among TJiasc Wlio Dorrorrca Was i ExGovernor TUolettc Loolcs as Tnauea thc Ianrcra Also Had Some Inside ItnorrlcOse of the I TVorlcinsrs Sioux City la March 9The Journals Jour-nals Pierre 5 D special says The legislative committee investigating investigat-ing the Taylor defalcation made its report re-port just before adjournment Proceedings Pro-ceedings were In secret and the report Is now made public for the first time The committee declares from the evidence evi-dence before it that it is shown fa con spiracy existed between certain sureties sure-ties of Taylor and the defaulter to I hold up the state and compel a settlement set-tlement It says We do not find that there was any collusion among the sureties or any other persons with him to defraud the 2 state prior to the time when it became I be-came apparent to John T McChesney I of New York one of the bondsmen I that Taylor would not be able to maker make-r hIs settlement with the state But we do find evidence strongly tending to R show that in the latter part of December Decem-ber 1S31 and after MoChesney discovered discov-ered that Taylor could not raise money enough to make his settlement TIc I Chesney together with Taylor D K J Tenney and C H Wells and C T McCoy Mc-Coy acting as agents at Pierre entered I enter-ed into a scheme to gather up all the funds held by Taylor amounting to over 5200000 and all the real and personal J per-sonal property owned by Taylor wherever I wher-ever located and place the same beyond be-yond the reach of the elate for the purpose of compelling the sfata to agree not to prosecute Taylor criminally I crim-inally or In other words to compound a felony on condlton that property and money to the amount of S10DODO should he delivered up and paid over to the state thus relieving the sureties by paying their liabilities With the funds stolen from the state Tha evidence showed they had attempted to carryout p carry-out the scheme with fraudulent intent to defraud the state I Tennejr and Wells are the Chicago lawyers of Taylor and McChesney i The committee finds that the total amount stolen by Taylor was 3H07010 A K to where the money went the evi I dence shows among other things r < That he loaned exGovernor Mellette moneys amounting to 29000 and that he loaned Judge Kellam 54000 and purchased a negotiable note for 5000 by United States Senator Pettigrew which was repaid to C T McCoy Tay lors agent on or about tho 7th of January Jan-uary 1S93 uaryWe further find that during the month ot December last he transferred from fifteen banks where he deposited I r public funds of about 200000 to himself him-self and for his benefit to New York t and Chicago that ha appropriated to A his own use prior to December last J S145SOO The evidence shows no collusion on r the part of any state officer with the defaulting treasurer There Is however how-ever testimony showing gross negli Kenccj to say the least on the part of Thomas EL Ruth excommissioner of school and public lands The report states that action to recover re-cover has been begun in thirty different counties and that services have been had on all the different defendants in the case that suits have also been instituted in-stituted against McCliesney in New York and William Taylor father of the defaulter in Indiana |
