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Show CASE OF FRANK W. KETTENBACH TO COME ; UP AT BOISE, IDAHO, ON SEPTEMBER 5 BOI8K. Ida.. Aug. it. Judge Prank a. Dietrich of th fdrl jurisdiction of th state of Idaho haa l th date of tn trial of Frank W. Ket ten bach, former preeident of th Lewi at on National bank of Lawletoa, Ida., charged with falsifying report to th comptroller of the currency, cur-rency, for September (, and the legal battle that will take piece then give promise of being one of the moot celebrated cele-brated as well a Interesting in the banking bletory of tha state. The preliminary pre-liminary clearing of th legal decka Is new taking place and th evidence that I to be Introduced by both the proeeeu-Un proeeeu-Un and) tbe defen will be sensational. sensa-tional. Fletcher Dobyna, special nvneeeutor for th department of Juatlce. who convicted John B. Walsh, the noted Chicago banker, and who refueed to give hie consent con-sent to a pardon for Walsh unless It could be ooncluetvely proven that tne oenvioted banker'e physical condition waa such as to warrant further Imprie-onment Imprie-onment decidedly dangsrous. baa arrived ar-rived in Boise to assist the government govern-ment In the eon vlct Ion of Kettenbach. He bear the title, of special assistant to the aKorncy genersKaaocJatewtth him will be Peyton Gordon, who hss had charge of both the benktng and timber fraud casea in this dlatrlct for the paat four yeere. The district ettomey'e office of-fice Is relieved from all reaponelblllty In connection with the prosecution of tne ceee. Convicted Haa Appealed. Pobyns secured the conviction of William Wil-liam F. Kettenbach. a nephew of the firesent defendant, snd Oeorge H. Kee-er. Kee-er. former preeident and cashier, respectively, re-spectively, of the Lewlston National bank. They were tried here early last spring snd convtrted on five connte for falsifying falsi-fying reports to the comptroller of the currency. In passing sentenoe, Judge Robert 8. Bean allowed the counts of five yeara each as a penalty on a verdict ver-dict of guilty to run consecutively. The defendante filed an appeal to the United 8tatee circuit court of appeals aa well aa moved for a new trtel. on the grounds that the jury was tampered with and the verdict waa Improperly rendered. The government then proceeded with the trial of Frank W. Kettenbach. who took ovr th lewlston National bank upon the retirement of Ms nephew. William Wil-liam F. Kettenbach. Frank w. waa ao-cueed ao-cueed of emhessltng 1187.000 of the funoa of the banking Institution together with C'larenoa W. Robnett. the bank bookkeeper. book-keeper. When the government had moot of its evidence In supporting the charge In the Indictments on two count. 'Judge Carl flash of the Montana district, dis-trict, who waa presiding, ruled that tha government would not be permitted to go beck of the date of the Indictment farther than three years. The government govern-ment claimed that the alleged embessle-ment embessle-ment ran over a period of from eight to tn years and the ruling of the court blorkAd the Introduction of cjrrohoratln evidence, with the reeutt that the government gov-ernment proaerutora, follow trig a short consultation, moved to dismiss tha Indictments, In-dictments, and the case waa suddenly terminated the court holding; the Indictments In-dictments quashed. One Indictment Kemalng This action left but one Indictment upon which ths government could go to trlsl with Frank W. Kettenbach as a defendant. de-fendant. In this true bill he g charged wtth falsifying the reports to the comptroller comp-troller of the currency while he waa actually ac-tually In charge of the hanking Institution Institu-tion as president. There are several counts In the Indictment and a conviction means either ft line or tanpiieoament, or both. 1 Clarence W. Robnett, the former hook-keeper hook-keeper of the Ieewlston National bank, who turned state's evidence both during the timber trial of tha Kettenbacha and K eater aa wall as the last hank trial, will be the star witness for the- government When on tha stand In the last bank trial Robnett admitted that he had taken mon-, sy from tha hanks In smounts of thou-! sand a of dollars at a time either through poetofftce money orders or more often by packing It Into a grip and going to Rpo- j kane where he Invested it In a company 1 he had organised, known as ths Spokane Orchards. This company later became defunct but Into It waa sunk over tio,-000 tio,-000 of the bank's money. He also spec- I u la ted In timber land. Irrigation projects and In the purchase of city real estate. Although admitting padding the books of the bank, extracting money from the cash and covering his who! eaa le looting for a period of years by a system of bookkeeping book-keeping oa the hanks and even going so far aa manipulating the adding machine ma-chine to suit his purpose Robnett da-1 dared that tha Kettenhechs as well ss Kester were aware of what he waa doing snd In fact where In on his Invest merits particularly the promotion of the Spokane Orchard company It was hta story that firmed so damaging to William P. Ket-enbach Ket-enbach and Oeorge H. Kester. Ths gov- 1 ernment Is confident It will hsve the same effect In the pending trial of Frank W. Kettenbach. ( i Employee to Testify. John Chapman nnd Carl Pickering, two of the other employeee of the bank, the former teller and tbe latter aaeletant bookkeeper, appear a wltneese on behalf be-half of the government and corroborate were Robnett. Picketing and Chapman; In part the etorv told by Rohnett. The defense haa alleged and wilt allege al-lege In the pending trial that the arch eoneplratora engaged In looting the bank, unknown to the Kettenbacha or Keeter, that they conspired to steal right and left and had extracted 11 37, (MM) from the bank before the defalcation was discovered by the national bank examiner or the bank orftclale. It le aleo alleged by the defendante de-fendante that when the ehortag wee mede known they paid neck the greater pert of the money. The Kettenbacha explain ex-plain the reports to the comptroller of the currency by stating they had followed a practice that had been aet by former benk officiate tn filling out the orheduied re porta and there was never any Intention Inten-tion en their pert to loot the bank or to reek fslee represents ttone te the comptroller. |
