MORE GRAFT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19988, 3 November 1927, Page 7

MORE GRAFT

THE OIL LEASE CASE If Charges are Proved, New Trial Will be Inevita’ ’? JURORS INFLUENCED ’By Telegraph—Par Press Assn.—Copyright.) (A. & N.Z.) NEW YORK, Nov. 1. The trial of Fail and Sinclair at Washington again assumed most sensational aspects when Mr Justice Siddons ordered the recess of the Court adjourned to the Chambers and conducted an investigation into charges of jury tampering, preferred by the Government counsel. The Judge’s inquiry was first surrounded by secrecy, only himself and counsel for both sides and a stenographer being present, while Sinclair was called in later. However, after the luncheon Interval, the Judge announced ho would withhold the decision until to-morrow, meanwhile permitting the publication of four affidavits supporting the charges, which created a great shock throughout the country, equalling that of the original oil scandal. It is now generally considered that a declaration of a mis-trial is inevitable. The affidavits were made by two assistant United States attorneys, a street car conductor, and a journalist. They allege that 15 operatives of a detective agency, who were allegedly employed by Sinclair, had kept the jury under surveilance hour by hour since the trial opened, that the operatives had large expense accounts, and had made strenuous efforts to obtain knowledge of the jurors’ personal lives, business contracts, and property, that the agents had operated under the direction of a so-called client, even to the extent of moving into the same hotel as the so-called client (meaning Sinclair) and that they were discovered when Government men raided the agency room at a hotel and seized the 1 reports. The affidavits also declared that one juror had stated, in the presence of two deponents, that he greatly admired Sinclair, and saw no advantage to himself in bringing in a verdict of conviction, but might get advantages from bringing in a verdict of acquittal, and that he expected to get “an automobile as long as the block’’ out of the trial. The operatives’ investigation of the jurorrs’ movements even extended into an inquiry regarding the ownership of the houses of one of the persons, particuarly whether it was mortgaged.

The Government lawyers stated that there was not the slightest doubt that a mis-trial must be declared, and there are hints that the grand jury is now sitting, and extraordinary developments are likely to ensue.