FORGERY IN TEXAS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 803, 25 October 1929, Page 1

FORGERY IN TEXAS

AFFIDAVITS ARRIVE FROM AMERICA

PROGRESS OF CROUCH CASE Another phase has been reached in the case of John Grey, Helensville land agent, who was arrested on September 25 and charged under the names of A. B. Crouch and J. M. Cameron, with being a fugitive criminal within the meaning of the Extradition Act, 1870. T7XTRADITION papers have arrived from the United States and are in the hands of the Crown Prosecutor, Mr. V. R. Meredith. With them is a President's warrant, authorising Sheriff Bigham to act for the United States Government and take charge of the prisoner if the Crown sees fit to hand him over. The papers, which consist of voluminous affidavits collected at the time of Crouch’s sensational disappearance from Temple, Texas, in 1916, arrived in Wellington by the steamer Tahiti on Tuesday. They were received by the Consul-General for the United States, who forwarded them to the Consul in Auckland, Mr. W. F. Boyle. Yesterday Mr. Boyle handed them to Mr. Meredith, The Act provides that if the foreign warrant of arrest is duly authenticated, and evidence is given which according to English law would justify a committal for trial, if the accused has not yet been tried, or would prove a conviction if he has already been convicted, the magistrate will commit him for extradition. After committal for extradition every accused has 15 days in which to apply for habeas corpus and after such period, or at the close of the habeas corpus proceedings if they are unsuccessful, the Governor-General issues a warrant for surrender and the accused is handed over to the officers of the foreign Government. Grey appeared before Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., in the Police Court on Wednesday, but as the extradition papers had not arrived he was further remanded in custody until next Wednesday.