Salt Lake Tribune | 1915-03-28 | Page 12 | Defendants Claim they are Innocent

DEFENDANTS CLAIM THEY AREJNKOGEHT Government Rests in In diana Election Fraud Case and Defense Opens GENERAL DENIAL MADE , Three of Accused Men Take Witness Stand to Clear Their Skirts INDIANAPOLIS March 27 A gen eral den al will bo made to the govern ment s charges by all of the twenty eight defendants on trial in the Terre Ilaute election fraud case here Th s was indicated today when the defense began the introdnction of evidence The government rested its Bide of the case this morning Three defendants, Harry S Montgora ery, pres dent of the board of works "William Crockett superintendent of the city crematory and Lewis Nunley as s slant city engineer denied the testi mony of government w tnesses Nunley was being cross exam ned by United States D strict Attorney Frank C Dai ley when court adjourned The men were pos tive in the r statements fre qnently almost shout ng the r denials and sometimes asserting I should say ,not or Absolutely, no In add Hon to repud at ng the charges Crockett stated that there was only one registration day in h s precinct, and that on the second and third days he was at work at the crematory and d d not see Ernest S Ivers Otto Trappier Bert Tos ser and others who have (pleaded guilty and test fied to mak ng fraudulent reg s trations with Crockett's a d in the pre cinct where the Democratic member was committeeman Damaging Admissions The three defendants test fymg to day served as election inspectors and adm tted they -worked the lever on the vot ng n achina that reg sters the vote and also instructed voters how to ma n pulate the cand dates keys A O Stanley ch ef counsel for the de f endants asserted that he had read care fully the elect on laws of Indiana and that he could f nd no section wh ch pre vented the inspectors performing that funct on Mr Dailey contended that it was m mater al whether the acts violated an Indiana law as the government sought to prove that elect on inspectors all over the c ty had reee ved the same kind of instructions as a part of the alleged con sp racy i A number of the election inspectors who have pleaded guilty have testified that they received such instruct ona from Mayor Donn M. Roberts Suggested the Scheme Nunley stated that Elmer Conover who has pleaded guilty, suggested the scheme to manipulate the registering lever on the voting machine so that it would not register, but would fool the voter and not Roberts as the govern ment w tness test f ed Roberts said it could not be done and that the man who suggested the scheme was crazy the witness testi fied George A Moorhead c ty clerk of Terre Haute called as a character wit ness for Montgomery testif ed on d rect examination that Montgomery s reputation was good The wlness on cross exam nat on stated t was about half and half after Mr Da ley had called h s attention to the fact that Mr Montgomery had been f ned $100 and given a iail sentence of thirty days for contempt of court m ra d ng a lawyer s office to obta n evidence be ng used in an election fraud tr al a year ago Mr Stanley on redirect examinat on asked f that was not the only incident that re fleeted on Montgomery s reputat on and the w tness sa d No W th one or two exceptions all the de fendants stood and were sworn when witnesses for the defense were asked to stand and take the oath