St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-05-21
TIRE JURY,s FINDINGS.
Dean Said to Be Indicted for His
Tax.TitIe Dealings.

The grand jury met again yesterday and
heard further testimony on the tax-title
cases, in which was explained the plan on
which Lang, Dean and Pugsley had
been acting. At 8 o'clock in the
afternoon the grand jury made a sup
Elementary report and adjourned until
June 81. They returned an Indictment, but
all information as to who was indicted
was refused. 1t is generally sup
posed that the party is Stanley E. Dean.
In its report to Judge Simonds the grand
jury says that the result of it's investigations
embrace proof of almost inconeeivable ignor-
ance, lncompetency and stupidity on the part
of one official and a lesser but still repre-
hensible carelessness on the part of others;
OF deliberate conspiracy between clerks in
a county office and an outside speculator to
defraud property owners under legal forms,
and of confusion in the statute law and ju-
dicial decisions on the subject that explains,
while it does not excuse. the loose and de-
fective administration which made these
frauds possible. The special cases of
abuse under investigation arose out of
the so-called omnibus delinquent tax sale of
1881 under the general forfeiture Of that
year. Here was the opportunity of the tax
title SPECTATOR, whose path was made smooth
for him by the singular credulity and in
capacity of the auditor of Ramsey county,
and the
COvETOUS AND CULPABLE
collision of his deputy and clerk. There
were in the city of st. Paul at the beginning
of the present year some 200 to $50 desorip-
lions of real property, of an aggregate value
of $500, 900 to $500, 00U on which the state
had received thee taxes for 1879 and
1880, and for all prior and subsequent years
which the county auditor had repeatedly GER
titled as free from state lien on account of
hhnry sod
IN the rapid transfer of an active real estate
market, through the technical DELINQUENCY of
these same taxes of 1879 and 1880, an absolute
senior title, which it stood ready to transfer
to any applicant upon the payment of q. few
dollars OF state taxes.
james b. Pugsley is the deputy aud Stanley
E. Dean the clerk of James O'Brien auditor
of Ramsey county. The evidence before tine
grand jury shows that during the month of
March or April, Pugsley, Dean and Lang
formed a sort of copartnership for the pur-
chase of tax titles, to which Lang contributed
the necessary money and Pugsley and Dean
such information as they could give from the
auditors books in their official relation to
him. The three partners were to divide
equally the profits of the transactions and
did so, Pugsley swearing that he received
about $160 as his share. There seems no
doubt that Dean furnished Lang transcript
from the auditors books of dissertations af
property subject to sale by the state. and
that the two subordinates influenced the
feeble-minded auditor to order such sales ne
were made. Their plan seems to have been
for Lang to acquire the tax titles, then seek
10 dispose of them at profit to other dealers
in such wares, or to employ them 10 extort
money from the owners of the fee TO the
property
The report says that the beginning ana end
of this scheme of legalized blackmail begins
and ends in Ramsey county. The report &C