Show postmaster LEONARD on trial for makin making fraudulent returns to etke department the cases of the united states vs george B leonard postmaster ot of kettles kamas summit county were called up in the third district court today there baere were lour four indictments indict menta against the defendant accusing him of making fraudulent returns of stamps cancelled on each of his bis reports to the post office department tor for the last quarter of 1886 and the first three quarters of 1887 judge 0 W powers was counsel lor the defendant and interposed a demurrer to the indictments because t they hey did not set forth the precise A mount amoun t of the alleged frauds thede ane de was overruled at the request of the defense the four indictments were consolidated and the trial proceeded id empanel lug a jury mr george C harken re as he ae not do so conscientiously the testimony in m the case is rather tedious and that lor for the prosecution may be zed as follows the kamas postoffice post office comes in the list of fourth class offices and the campen of the post postmaster maste r is based on the bumper of stamps cancelled that is the mail sent out front from his office 11 II this does not exceed 50 per quarter be takes the whole amount of the next of cancelled stamps he gets 60 per cent of the next 50 per cent of the next W 40 percent but m no case is tile the cow corn sensation pensa tion to exceed 1000 per adnum the government places in the hands of the postmaster T a s ter a certain amount of stamps xu and d from the sales of these he reimburses himself and remits the surplus to the department the prosecution in this case claims that kamas has only 60 to 70 families mr leonard reported for the quarter ending dec iwa cancelled cao caa celled stamps for the quarter ending march 31 81 1887 he reported cancelled stamps the 11 next ext quarter was and the fourth quarter still less but yet greatly in excess of what the government claims to be the actual business the report f for or the first quarter in 1887 was so disproportionate to td the needs of theoffice the office that it attracted the attention of the department officials who concluded that the postmaster was falsifying the returns and drawing angat at least five to seven times the amount of salary due him so inspector E B was detailed to trace the matter up all the mail from kam kaunas I 1 as passes through peoa geoa except anat little might be taken out at oakley summit conn ty where there are about ten famil families leq trie tae postmaster at peoa geoa osea oscar r F lyon was instructed to keep daily tally of the mail received from kamas and mr leonard was also directed TO keep beep a daily memorandum of the stumps stamps con conceited celled by him this gave him notice that he be was being watched and his report suddenly dropped from abat 5 daily as reported in febra february a ry and match maich to from 82 cents to 1 80 per day this thia made his report tor jane reach 43 09 but postmaster lyons couba only find and fa 27 lor for the mouth month when it reached his place on oa june jane 23 ivr mr leonard was visited oy the inspector and his books overhauled his reports of cat cai c ailed stamps were were still too higi however though much less than chaa formerly from september 6 to september 30 he rep reported 2218 but tile tae tally at peoa geoa showed only 47 7 50 0 on october 22 the inspector again visited kamasa and this time bold told mr leonard that hn his fraud was detected that h his s report indicated about five letters daily sent by each family in kamas when in fact it did not reach one fifth of that end and that he had bad sufficient evidence to send him to the penitentiary mr leonard then made a statement and the inspector took it in writing it was to the affect that tile the cancellation of stamps had been generally estimated and not dot made by actual count the dimio dimi ution cution in the report showed that at one time the estimate had been from 4 90 0 to 5 3 50 dally daily but when the counting began the cancellation was 21 cents to at 81 cents dally judge powers made a vigorous fight fis ht against mr leonards state statement or confession as it was termed admitted mit in eviden evidence evid endS ct claiming that it was obtained in a measure through compulsion he made quite a speech in favor of his bis motion and was just j about closing when ahen mr clarke leaned over to mr peters and asked that at aument is not worth replying to is its it mr peters replied smilingly 1 I think not orlando became in candescent at this slight exhibition of levity and turning upon mr peters with pale face and flashing flis hing eye up braided him for laughing at his legal opponents lust jut his lame game 11 said he laughing at counsel couche not showing proper professional courtesy courte sv just to have an effect on the jury rhe fhe court overruled tile the motion of judge powers and tie he cooled off as far as a temperature of 80 degrees in the ioe shade would permit the trial had not concluded when we went to press |