Show TRIAL OF i J H BACON I Some Important Testimony Put In I By the Prosecution THE SANITARIUM STOCK t STATEMENTS OF HABVEY BACON BA-CON AND THE HOLLANDS Somewhat of a Surprise to the Prosecution Prose-cution Several Documents Introduced In-troduced Trial Will Occupy Several Sev-eral Days YetOther Matters In the Federal Court Yesterday James H Bacon during the whole of yesterdays session of the federal court continued on trial before Judge Marshall Mar-shall charged with false and erroneous entries made during the existence of the defunct American National Bank of Salt Lake an offense which if proven to the satisfaction of the jury will result in a sentence of durance in the penitentiary Some important testimony was taken at yesterdays trial from Harvey M e I iiA 1qLa TAMES H BACON THE DEFENDANT Bacon brother of the defendant and F M and W Holland one time cashier cash-ier and assistant cashier of the bank Their testimony was chiefly as to the Sanitarium stock alleged to have been owned by the bank The testimony of each of these witnessees was a surprise to the prosecution by whom they were called as they agreed in stating that the shares of Sanitarium stock were in 1 the possession of the bankan allegation allega-tion exactly contrary to the one made by each of the witnesses some time ago t before the grand jury As soon as court convened in the morning Judge McGinnis offered in evidence ev-idence a letter from the comptroller of the treasury which he said called attention at-tention to the unsafe condition of the bank in October and showed the motive mo-tive for the false entries Counsel for the defense objected to the admission of the letter and upon making the assertion that the paper had been seized from Mr Bacons personal per-sonal effects were given permission by the court to prove the seizure Attorney Attor-ney McGinnis was put on the stand and testified that he had received the paper from Knox or Edmunds just before be-fore the time the grand jury found the indictment Edmunds who was in the employ of the receivers of the bank was promptly prompt-ly put under a crossfire by the defense He said he had received the paper from Knox and Jacobs the receivers Under examination by Colonel Ellis Edmunds admitted that he had taken the paper by force from a drawer marked James H Bacon private by means of breaking the lock He had been assisted in this by Judge Dey and Tnloh Attorney Booth made objection to the admission of the paper as evidence on the ground that as it had beep seized from Bacons possession it could not be used in evidence against him since the defendant would thus be compelled to testify against himself The court decided that the seizure had been unreasonable and sustained the objection of the defense to the admission ad-mission of the paper McGinnis thereupon placed the letter in the hands oi counsel for the defense and promptly demanded its return The defense declined to release possession posses-sion of the paper as also of books demanded by McGinnis the court holding hold-ing that this was a matter at the option op-tion of the defendant The letter of Bacon and the other directors of the bank to the comptroller comptrol-ler upon which Judge Judd was examined ex-amined the day before was again placed in evidence after a vain struggle strug-gle by the defense to have the paper J declared inadmissible on the ground of I irrelevancy The letter dealt largely with an exploitation 1 ex-ploitation of the sanitarium stock proposition and after reading this to the jury Attorney McGinnis introduced a series of deeds and transfers showing show-ing the history of the sanitarium stock irregularities The first was a certified copy furnished fur-nished by Recorder J C Jensen of a deed of trust dated March 25 1SSO by which Mark McKimmins and Irene L I McKimmins conveyed the livery stable now used for the sanitarium to James H Bacon as trustee The deed was given to secure an indebtedness of 25 000 due to Joseph B Bacon of Ma coma Ills Colonel Ellis opposed the admission of this as evidence on the ground that It did not bear on the I issues of the indictment The court maintained that the evidence was proper as the attempt of the prosecution prose-cution was to show that as the title I never did vest in the bank the statement state-ment to the comptroller was false and I that there were several other false entries en-tries at about the same period Certified copies were also introduced of a deed executed on Oct 8 1S91 by James H Bacon conveying the property prop-erty to H M Bacon for 29500 in pursuance pur-suance of a sale under the trust deed and a further certified copy of a deed dated Oct 9 1891 in which a quit claim is given by Mr and Mrs McKimmins to H M Bacon The final transfer was a quit claim deed from H M Bacon who conveyed the same premises on May 8 1893 to the Salt Lake Hot Springs Sanitarium company in consideration of the sum of SI IN THE AFTERNOON County Recorder J S Jensen who was the first witness in the afternoon testified regarding the location of the sanitarium building I F M Holland former cashier of the I American National bank of Salt Lake 1 testified that he had handled the cash and securities of the bank Do you know asked Attorney Mc Ginnis of 555 shares of sanitarium stock having at any time been in possession pos-session of the bank 7 Yes sir it was there When did you make up your mind it was there I have always known it was there since the bank owned it Did you not say in substance to the grand jury asked McGinnis quoting from the official record that you did not know whether there were that many shares of sanitarium stock at the bank or not t I dont know whether I did or not Do you now remember that there were 555 shares in the bank I believe there were about that many but cannot say from my memory mem-ory Mr Holland upon further questioning question-ing said he knew approximately the number of shares from having seen the valuation of the stock carried on the books at over > 55000 and had understood under-stood that the par value was about 100 a share When shown balance book No2 he said the account showed a valuation of 5528151 and as 100 in Alta club stock was the only other stock carried by the bank he could tell the number of shares there ought to be Asked whether he had seen the bankbooks bank-books since the second jury trial Holland Hol-land admitted that he had since examined exam-ined them at the marshals office in company with the defendant and said he had examined them in order to get posted Considering the amount of the valuation val-uation on the stock continued Judge McGinnis there ought to have been only 50 shares should there not I guess so I do not know just how many there were W M HOLLAND W M Holland the former assistant cashier and bookkeeper testified that he remembered the Sanitarium securities securi-ties He admitted that his memory on this question had been aided since the I grand jurv trial Did you not say in substance to the grand jury asked Judge McGinnis that you had handled the stock at the bank but had iever seen the Sanitarium Sanita-rium stock I cannot remember making that an swer Witness said he remembered seeing 1 the securities at the bank and when asked how his memory had become sharpened upon that point said he did not know He thought he had been there about three months before the I closing up of the bank I think there were about 50 shares I believe they were made out to H M Bacon and my brother I do not know whether any were made out to the bank The witness said he had talked to his brother andMr Bacon on the subject and had examined the books at the marshals office He estimated the number num-ber of shares to be about 50 from the valuation placed on them HARVEY M BACON Harvey M Bacon was the next witness wit-ness He testified that he had heen vice president of the bank and had assisted as-sisted in making out the statements He had also handled the Sanitarium stock Judge McGinnis again brought out the record of the grand Jury prncp dins d-ins Did you not say to the grand Jury I he said quoting I know of no Sanitarium Sani-tarium stock and do not know of the 1 bank ever owning any I do not know answered the witness wit-ness after a long pause Can you apswer that positively yes or no noNo No I did not testify in that way Did you not say that you knew nothing of any Sanitarium stock Yes I did testify that I did not know knowWas Was not some of your own Sanitarium Sanita-rium stock in the bank at the time Yes Crossexamination Mr Bacon said he had found there were 555 shares upon examining the books At the conclusion of witness testimony testi-mony Attorney McGinnis offered in evidence ev-idence the articles of incorporation which bore the date of May 2nd 1893 AN EXPERT E H Knaus an expert accountant who had examined the books of the banking firm was placed on the stand He was given the stock certificate book of the Sanitarium With the question ques-tion Did you find upon examination that shares of stock had been issued to the American National bank or had been in their possession Objection was made by counsel for the defense but the question was allowed al-lowed No The book does not indicate that the bank ever owned or possessed the stock I The defense interposed another objection ob-jection in which it was claimed that the validity of the book had not been shown To prove this H M Bacon president of the company was placed on the stand and testified as to its accuracy Witness then gave the names of those to whom stock had been issued and In what amounts as follows Total To-tal number of shares issued up to Dec 19 1893 1500 The stock was issued as follows E H Hackett 100 shares Lewis Haberman 100 shares Mr Royles 100 L E Clark 50 T S Hall 50 W E Hubbard 25 A M Grant 25 H M Bacon at different times 30 70 20 110 James H Bacon 50 495 450 100 350 Minnie Himm 50 H M Bacon 50 James H Bacon 5 345 250 50 25 1010 Mr Knaus figures under bills of discount dis-count were 33150206 as compared with 33154307 in the companys statement His figures on overdrafts shown in the books werc 14479S2 as compared with something over 5000 in the banking firms statement After counsel for the prosecution had offered a number of books in evidence court adjourned until 10 oclock this I morning Other Business Lars Thomson who is now languish ng in the penitentiary filed a writ of habeas corpus with the clerk of the federal court yesterday The writ sets forth that he was convicted of grand larceny committed in Wayne county in May 1895 Lars grievance is that at the time the indictment was found a trial by 12 jurors was the prerogative of an offending fending citizen but when he came to trial eight men formed the jury and sent him to the penitentiary serve three years His petition is that he be aken before the court and given his freedom in a formal manner DI5trlct Attorney Judd yesterday asked the federal court to dismiss the two counts against exAssistant Postmaster 1 Post-master McBride upon which a bill Of particulars had to be filed Judge Mar shall ruled that he would have to make his motion in open court when the other side were present Judge Judd Not Judge Marshall In an item which appeared in The I Herald of Tuesday giving an account of an incident which occurred in the federal court on Monday when the petit jurors were being examined as to their j fitness to serve an error occurred which is hereby corrected S F Ball was asked by United States District Attorney Attor-ney Judd if he had ever been convicted of a felony The juror replied that he had and then the report went on to state that Judge Marshall who occupied occu-pied the bench asked Mr Ball what his I offense had been and Ball replied that it was unlawful cohabitation and then a colloquy followed in which it was I represented that Judge Marshall took part The error was in attributing the remarks to Judge Marshall who really took no hand in it Judge Judd being the one who made the remarks which were erroneously put down to Judge Marshall |