Los Angeles herald., 1890-11-17
There We're More, But Abbrevi-
atiOns Knocked Them Out.
The Exculpating Force of Some Le'
gal Technicalities.
How the Ex-Deputy County Clerk Con-
Quoted His Business-What Mr..
Cohn Once Testified To.


taken by Judge Wade, four of them have
been dismissed on demurrer, liable to be
again presented to the grand jury in the
interests of the people.
These were declared void by Judge
Wade when the defendant demurred to
them through little technicalities, though
no one denies that the warrants on
which they were based were forgeries,
and that money belonging to the county
was obtained fraudulently on them, and
perforce crime committed. Yet ac-
Cording to the ruling of Judge Wade,
Mr.. Edelman cannot be prosecuted
under four of these indictments.
A large portion of the public would
like to know why.
The answer is, because authorizations
were used in drawing UP the false war
rants.
Henry Edelman was indicted by
grand jury for false and fraudulent re-
turns of jury list under indictments
$50, $40, GAL and 642.
Judge Wade threw these all out
of court, because 'jur." was written in
in place OF Juror"
Because &c. ex. fund" was written
instead OF county expense fund.-" and
because of similar abbreviations.
The difference between crime and
righteous act then, according to the law,
consists in spelling word in full or
using an abbreviation.
Be it understood that the major part
Of all the warrants are drawn, and have
ion. The eur" has always been recog-
nized as meaning 'juror," and &c ex.
fund.- has always been recognized as
meaning county expense fund"
But that is the law when it comes to
bear on a derelict Republican county
official
The demurrer to the four indictments
presented other points, it is true, but
they were not so weighty even as the
one based ON the use of an abbreviated
word.
The public at large may not compre-
hend exactly Mr.. Edelman's procedure
A specimen indictment is the one based
on a warrant issued to Frank White of
Duarte. for jury fees amounting to $2S
and $50 for mileage, sos in all, Mr..
White not having been entitled to any
such money, and knowing nothing about
such claim, if in fact there is any such
person as Mr.. White.
In the first place it is charged that
Mr.. Edelman placed Whites name on a
jury list, certified to it az correct, and
passed it to the supervisors, who ordered
the auditor to issue the warrant. Edel-
man, it is alleged, goes to Deputy Coun-
ty Auditor Lauterio and gets the war
rant, takes it to Mr.. Cohn, the pawn
broker, authorizes" him to sign the
payee's name on it, Cohn gets the mon
ey, and says he turned it over to Edel-
man.
1t is case of fraud throughout, from
beginning to the end. Edelman is
charged with a felony in making false
jury list, and with felony for forging the
names of the dummy payees. Alto
gether there are four or five of these
dummy jurymen on one certified list
only.
Here is an example in an alleged
juror who was designated as A. Phillips.
This dummy was allotted $33520 by
Edelman for jury fees and mileage. In
November, 1883, Mr.. Cohn collected for
Mr.. Edelman on the alleged Mr..
in January, 1890, S52; in February
These were all bogus, and were all col
1t was noticed by readers of the
HERALDs report OF the,Edelman trial on
Saturday that Mr.. Cohn's lack of mem
ory was superbly developed. In the ex-
animation of the case in July last, how
ever, Mr.. Cohn remembered very well.
He testified then that he got the war
rants in question from Henry Edelman.
That he did not buy them.
On one issued in the name OF Mr..
Bliss, he wrote the payee's name across
the back, as his Endorsement, putting it,
fsbv L. B. Cohn." He did this because
he was authorized" to by Edelman.
He then stated that he got the money
on the warrant from the county treas
urer, amounting to $64, and gave it to
Edelman. Edelman told him to get
this money from the treasurer. He re-
membered all this in last July.
He remembered all this before the
grand jury. He rememberd even the
day before the trial, and so told some
friends, but 10, in twenty-four hours he
lost his memory on these points.
Before the grand jury Mr.. Cohn stated
that he knew nothing about the warrants
except that Edelman brought them to
him and he signed the payee's name on
Edelnan's authorization" -Edelman
told him that the law forbade county
official from dealing in warrants, but
that just to oblige some jurors he had
advanced them money, and they had
authorized him to take these warrants
and get them cashed. He did not like
to cash the warrants himself, as ii
.'might look bad," so he asked Cohn to
indorse them, cash them at the county
treasurer's and give him the money.
That was Cohn's statement before the
grand jury. That was before he forgot.
He was particularly asked why he
signed the payee's name on the warrant,
and he replied that he did so because
Edelman told him to do it, and he under
stood Edelman was authorized to do so
by the jurors in whose name the war
rants were drawn.
Naive Mr.. Cohn
Ben Edelman, a brother of Henry, used
to be mentioned in these cases.
In fact, Ben Edelman was indicted
three times by the grand jury for the
same offenses.
But Judge Wade dismissed the three
indictments because of the very i'm
moral, illegal and exculpating fact that
the warrants on which the indictments
were based, contained abbreviated terms
such as 'jur" for Juror" &c. ex. fund"
for county expense fund"
Happy Ben Grand law!