754 



STAR-ROUTE TRIAL. 



sist in the prosecution of the case as Govern- 

 ment counsel. Argument was begun on the 

 motion to quash the indictment on the 31st 

 of March, the Government being represented 

 by District Attorney Corkhill, Mr. Bliss, Mr. 

 Ker, and Mr. Merrick, and the defense by 

 Messrs. Ingersoll, Totten, Wilson, Shellabarger, 

 Chandler, and others, and five hours were al- 

 lowed to each side. The chief grounds on 

 which it was claimed that the indictment 

 should be quashed was that the defendants 

 had not been bound over by a commission to 

 await the action of the Grand Jury, and that 

 the jury had found the indictments without 

 having the cases properly brought before them 

 by order of the Court. The motion was de- 

 nied on the 10th of April, and the Court held 

 that the indictment was good and sufficient. 

 The defendants being then called upon to 

 plead, Mr. Totten stated that he wished to file 

 a plea in abatement on behalf of Brady and 

 Turner, on the ground that persons other than 

 the District Attorney had free access to the 

 Grand Jury when the indictment was under 

 consideration, and the jury was improperly 

 influenced. On the following day, April llth, 

 after hearing argument, the Court ruled that the 

 proceedings of the Grand Jury room could not 

 be inquired into. In closing his decision, Judge 

 Wylie said : " The plea must be entered, or, if 

 the defendants stand mute, the trial will pro- 

 ceed under the terms of the law. The only 

 objection, that some of the parties have been 

 indicted under their initials instead of their 

 full Christian names, is of no consequence now, 

 and it can form the basis of a plea in abate- 

 ment hereafter. My opinion is that the Grand 

 Jury acted improperly, but that does not affect 

 the indictment ; and I therefore decide that this 

 plea in abatement is not allowable, and that 

 the Court ought not to receive it." Some of 

 the defendants refused to plead, but pleas of 

 " Not guilty " were entered for all except S. W. 

 Dorsey, who had failed to appear. His recog- 

 nizance had been declared forfeit, and a war- 

 rant issued for his arrest. On the 19th of April 

 he appeared in court and pleaded " Not guilty," 

 and the order for forfeiture of his bail was set 

 aside. 



A motion on behalf of the defendants for a 

 bill of particulars was denied on the 20th of 

 April. Judge "Wylie said it was not necessary 

 that an overt act should plainly appear in the 

 indictment, if the existence of the conspiracy 

 was established. It was, however, necessary to 

 prove that one or more of the accused had com- 

 mitted acts in furtherance of the conspiracy. 

 He thought the indictment was faulty in not 

 describing the alleged forged papers with suf- 

 ficient fullness, but the question was whether 

 there was not enough other evidence set forth 

 to fulfill the requirements of the law. Re- 

 dundancy in an indictment was not a fault, and 

 if there was enough evidence of the commis- 

 sion of overt acts to secure the conviction of 

 one of the alleged conspirators without the 



admission of these papers, the indictment was 

 good. On the 22d, the motion to quash the 

 indictment as to Rerdell, on the ground that 

 he had been indicted under his initials as M. 

 C. Rerdell, instead of his full name as Mont- 

 fort C. Rerdell, was granted. The Court held 

 that all authorities were agreed, that when an 

 indictment designated a man by initials only, 

 without explanation, it was defective. If "it 

 had declared that the name was unknown, or 

 that the person was ordinarily known by cer- 

 tain initials or abbreviations, it would have 

 been sufficient. Rerdell was rearrested and 

 brought before the police court on the 24th. 

 On the preliminary trial there, which began 

 on the 26th, ex-Attorney-General McVeagh 

 and ex-Postmaster - General James testified 

 that Rerdell had made a statement or con- 

 fession to them, in which he said that he had 

 been the manager for the Star Route combina- 

 tion in behalf of S. W. Dorsey. No bids had 

 been made in Dorsey's name because he was 

 then a senator, but when he left the Senate a 

 division of the routes was made. Rerdell said 

 that he had kept a set of books which showed 

 that certain payments had been entered under 

 the names of Smith and Jones, which names 

 represented Brady and Turner. Mr. James 

 said that Rerdell had told him that Brady re- 

 ceived either 33 or 40 per cent of the extra 

 compensation when increase or expedition was 

 granted, and that one half the fines remitted 

 had to be paid to him. Rerdell was further 

 said to have declared that when the congres- 

 sional investigation was made, and a call for 

 the books was anticipated, a complete new set 

 had been made by him to prevent the discov- 

 ery of these payments. It was said that Dor- 

 sey regained his influence over Rerdell, and 

 induced him to retract the so-called confession. 

 The time set for the trial was May 4th, but 

 on that day further motions to quash the in- 

 dictment were made in behalf of Brady and 

 Turner, on the ground that they held official 

 positions and acted on their discretion, and that 

 they were improperly joined with the others. 

 Judge Wylie held that a conspiracy was a 

 single crime, and that all engaged in it were 

 on the same footing without regard to the 

 official relations of some of them. J. W. Dor- 

 sey was not in court, and his counsel was 

 somewhat warmly accused of violating a pledge 

 to secure his presence whenever the trial was 

 to take place. In consequence of his absence 

 an adjournment was taken to the 16th, when 

 he appeared, and gave bail. At that time 

 counsel for the Government announced that 

 they had concluded, instead of having Rerdell 

 reindicted separately, to get a new indictment 

 against all the alleged conspirators ; otherwise 

 they might be compelled to have two trials, 

 going over practically the same ground. On 

 account of this determination there was a 

 further postponement until May 25th, to await 

 the action of the Grand Jury. The trial of 

 Rerdell in the police court was also suspended. 



