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Show Ill E HARMBE IS 1 ON TRIAL I TIE OISTRICTCOURT In tho district court this morning In Judge J. A. Howell's division, waa taken tak-en up the trial of the state of Utah against William W. Harcombe and James Cowan, John Leavltt, Louis A-Hanson, A-Hanson, WUford Cragun, Ezra Farr, Charles W. Field, John Green and Joseph Rhodes -wero selected as jurors. The information against the defendant defend-ant alleges that In February and March, of 1915, the defendant was acting act-ing as clerk or agent for the law firm of Boyd, DeVine & Eccles and that while acting In that capacity he col-looted col-looted $375 for the firm, from D. Rosenthal Ros-enthal of the Goldon Eagle Clothing company and appropriated the raonoy to his own use. The first witness placed on the stand for tho state was Attorney C. A. Boyd, senior member of tho firm of Boyd, DeVine & Eccles, who told of the transactions of tho firm with the defondant, explaining the embezzlement embezzle-ment as It (became known to the law company. Mr. Boyd stated that, in the summer of 1914, the defendant was taken into the firm at a salary of $50 a month, office rent, use of the library and the services of tho office stenographer. Ho also explalnod that Harcombe was .placed In charge of tho collection department de-partment and was to receive, aside from his salary, 50 per cent of the commissions due the firm on collections. collec-tions. The witness said that all moneys wero to bo turned into the firm treasury treas-ury and he was to be paid both his salary and commissions in checks drawn by tho firm, Mr. Boyd stating that he personally kept in touch with the collection department. It was also understood, said Mr. Boyd, that remittances re-mittances to creditors on collections made should be by checks drawn by tho firm or by drafts. In January, 1915, tho witness explained, ex-plained, two accounts against D. Rosenthal Ros-enthal were given Mr. Harcombe for collection, one for $274 and the other 'for $294. They were accounts from two different firms in tho east In the following May, one of the creditors returned a check for about ?1SG signed by Harcombe, the paper having been denied payment The witness said that was tho first intimation inti-mation that there was anything wrong with the collection department He called the defendant Into conference and asked him why he was settling accounts ac-counts with creditors with his personal per-sonal check. Harcombe told him that Rosenthal was a little slow in remitting remit-ting but that he expected him to make a settlement In timo for him to protect pro-tect his check. The witness said that he strenuously objected to that system sys-tem of doing business. Soon after, Mr. Boyd declared, he conferred with Rosenthal and learned that he had partially settled his account ac-count Harcombe was again callod to account at which timo, the witness said, he acknowledged that ho had used the money, as ho was a little hard pressed. He said that he expected ex-pected soon to get returns which would enable him to mako a settlement settle-ment on the shortage. At a later date, it was rolated by the witness, Harcombe gave him a list of accounts which ho had collected, collect-ed, and on the list were the two Rosenthal Ro-senthal accounts, one for ?200 and the other for $225. Continuing his testimony, Attornoy Boyd this afternoou said that ho had requested a settlement of Mr. Harcombe, Har-combe, but that none had ever been made. He said that the defendant told him at one time that he thought he could raise $1500 or $3000 to settle his shortage, but ho was informed the company would bo satisfied if he paid tho amount duo on the collections in small sums, $50 a month or less than that each month. In giving a list of accounts realized real-ized from but not accounted for to the firm, the witness said Attorney DeVine of the firm asked Harcombe how ho knew that the list covered all the accounts and that the amounts given were correct to which the defendant de-fendant replied: "I know thoy are correct because I have spent many sleepless nights thinking about them and they have been burned into my brain." Mr. Boyd testified that his firm remitted the $200, and the $225, Rosenthal Ro-senthal accounts to tho creditors. He also said that Harcombe told him he had collected tho money and used It On cross examination, Mr. Boyd stated that 50 per cent of the firm's commissions for collections made by Harcombe was to pay him for his work in tho collection department and that the $50 a month was to compensate him for other legal service ser-vice done for the firm, such as occasionally occa-sionally drawing up papers. Tho witness wit-ness denied that Harcombe was supposed sup-posed to act as claim agont on behalf be-half of the firm for tho Bamberger company. |
