IN DIRECT CONFLICT.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 252, 23 October 1919, Page 5

IN DIRECT CONFLICT.

c POLICE EVIDENCE CHALLENGED BY ALLEGED BOOTMAKER. d A charge of bookm.Vking on the Avone dale racecourse on September 27, tlu 0 first day of the spring meeting there, was i. laid against a young man named Art'nui .John Watson at the 'Police Court yester day afternoon before Mr. J. E. Wilson S.M. Mr. Oetler appeared for the defence Acting-Detective Knight -stated thai he saw the accused receiving money frore various people, and handing it to tw< c other men ■who were lying on the grasi c some distance away. He also madi t notes from time to time in a small book He was apprehended after attempting ti elude the police, and when asked hiname he gave a fa!ee one (Johns). Hi also objected strongly to being searched On him were found two papers bearing columns of figures. The two other niei 3 ' pleaded guilty to bookmaking, and wer ls fined. n I The defendant, in the box, direetl; '.? denied that he was bookmaking, or tha 1 he gave a false name. He declared tha 1_ Acting-Detective Knight was telling a: untruth on this point. He jrave mone. to the other men, he said, simply in orde that they might put it on the totalisii tor for him, and explained this by sayin; that he was too lazy to go himself, an , n did not like the crush. He did no refuse to be searched, but almost e _ lowed the police about, demanding t |j_ be searched in order that his innocenc r . might be established. ■ in A brother and two friends of the <k fendant were called, and said that the did not sii. him doing any bookmakin on the course that afternoon. The Magistrate intimated that lie \va not at all satisfied with, the defendant evidence. mi Mr. Ostler expressed a wish to ca ig the other two men, in view of certai /3 developments in the evidence. The cas waa accordingly adjourned till Friday.