TAMPERING WITH JURY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 191, 2 November 1927, Page 1

TAMPERING WITH JURY

FRESH SCANDAL IN OIL-FRAUD TRIAL

SENSATION CAUSES BY AFFIDAVITS

By Cable. —Press Association. — Copyright. Received 11.30 a.m. WASHINGTON, Tuesday. THE trial of Albert Fall, formerly Secretary of the Interior, and Harry Sinclair, for conspiring to defraud the Government in connection with naval oil reserves, again assumed most sensational aspects, when Judge Siddons ordered a recess of the Court and adjourned to Chambers, where he conducted investigations into charges of tampering with the jury preferred by the Government counsel.

THE judge’s inquiry was first surrounded with secrecy, only himself, the counsel for both sides, and the court stenographer being present, while Sinclair was called in later, but after the luncheon interval the judge announced that he would withhold his decision until to-morrow, in the meantime permitting the publication of the four affidavits supporting the charges. These affidavits have created a shock throughout the country equalling that of the original oil scandals. It is now generally considered that declaration of mis-trial is practically certain. The affidavits, four in number, were made by two assistant-attorneys of the United States, a street-car conductor, and a journalist. They alleged that 15 operatives of a detective agency ellegedly employed by Sinclair had kept the jury under surveillance hour by hour since the trial opened. They said that these operatives had large expense accounts, and had made strenuous efforts to obtain knowledge of the jurors’ personal lives, business contacts, property, etc.; that the

agents 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 the operations were discovered when Government men raided the agency room in the hotel, and seized the 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 himself in bringing a verdict of conviction, but he might get advantages by bringing an acquittal, and that he expected to get “an automobile as long as the block” out of the trial. Tho operatives’ investigation of the jurors’ movements even extended into inquiries regarding the ownership of the house of one of the jurors, and particularly whether it was mortgaged. The Government lawyers stated that there was not the slightest doubt that a mis-trlal must be declared, and there are hints that a grand jury is now sitting, and that extraordinary developments are likely to ensue. —A. and N.Z.