Los Angeles herald., 1891-02-20
DAMRON'S TESTIMONY.
HE TAKES THE STAND AND TELLS
HIS STORY.
The Case to Go to the Jury Today-Fea-
lures Of Yesterdays Evidenoe-Court
Notes-New Suits.

man j. M. Damron, charged with for
gerry, was resumed before Judge Smitl
and jury in department one of the su
perior court. 1t being generally under
stood that the prosecution would rest it
case, without introducing further testi
mony, every available space in the
courtroom was occupied by spectator,
who were evidently anxious to hea
Damron testify in his own behalf. Ii
this, however, the majority was disap
pointed, as the whole OF the mornin,
and part Of the afternoon session wal
devoted to the examination of "char
acter" witnesses. H. H. Appel, Esq.
was the first witness called, and testified
that prior to the exposure of Dam
ron's peculiar method OF raising money
his reputation in the community had
been good. He would not believe Chad
wick under oath. On cross-examinatior
the witness admitted that he was assist
ing the; defense in the case, whereupor
Deputy District Attorney McComal
smiled serenely and allowed the witness
TO stand aside.
F. r. Willis, Esq, the next. witness
testified in similar manner, but ad
united that he was AppePs partner, ant
was not questioned further.
]. H. Hellman. a merchant from Sar
Pedro, testified that Damron, who haC
been his attorney for number of years
had borne good reputation, but tina
Chadwick had not.
The cross-examination of the witness
was brief. Mr.. McComas wanted te
know ii the witness was not under
special obligation to Damron for pushing
through the last legislature pilot bill
which was favorable to his (witness'
business interests. The witness ad.
mitted he was taking considerable inter.
est in the defense of Damron, and had
solicited leading attorney to defend
him.
A. Montana, Esq.,, considered Dam
ron's reputation good up to the present
trouble. Chadwick had bad name.
A. j. Vinton, Esq.'s opinion of the
two men was the same as the previous
witness.
"You bear no special love for Chad
wick" observed Mr.. McComas, upon
cross-examination. "You were EN-
ployed by Mr.. Chadwick some time ago
to attend to the collection of some
money, and did he not accuse you. o
standing in with Damron and beating
him out of about $2OO?"
The defense objected to the question.
The prosecutor said he only wanted to
show the reason why he was unfavor-
able to Chadwick. The objection was
sustained.
G. H. Dunsmoor, E. H. Boyd, J. P.
Taggart, A. T. Patton, F. Linde, T. j
McCarty and j. B. Mason, all testified
that Damron's reputation prior to the
commencement OF his troubles had been
good, while that of Chadwick was bad
Jesse Hardesty, who was assistant
prosecutor under Frank p. Kelly
testified that Chadwick's character was
very bad.
"'You prosecuted Mr.. Chadwick for
forgery, did you not?" inquired Mr..
McComas.
II did" eql.sisse ,sss,a.sses .si,s iiaJ
"And he was acquitted"
II must confess he was"
A few other questions were asked the
witness. when he felt called upon to de-
clare that he never prosecuted man
unless he thought him guilty. "And l
never had case dismissed against a
man whom thought guilty. as was the
case in this court" This remark was
said with considerable emphasis.
The court asked the witness to ex-
plain little. 1t wanted to know if the
witness intimated that such proceed
ing took place while the present judge
presided.
The witness said while another Judge
presided a man had been sentenced to
eight years in San Quentin. The
supreme court reversed the judgment on
a technicality and ordered q new trial.
Instead Of the man being tried again,
Mr., McComas had moved that the case
be dismissed, and it was done.
Freeman G. Teed, Len. j. Thompson
and G. H. McNelly corroborated the tes-
timony Of the majority Of the witnesses
preceding them, and recess was then
taken until l 80 O'Clock for lunch.
On reconvening, Anson Brunson. G.
Doren and B. w. Diehl were examined
for the defense and testified to Dam
ron's reputation being good, while that
tof Chadwick was bad, prior to the for
mer's arrest.
ln6 Q0lcklu2nb ulAlSCAA LiicIl LOOk tllc
stand on his own behalf, and related
the full particulars of his troubles. He
testified that he was arrested for the
first time on July 16, 1890, with J. s..
Chadwick and w. @. Lockwood, then
Justice OF the peace. They were taken
before q magistrate, and after arraign-
ment upon the charge of forgery, he was
admitted to bail. Next day he was ar.
rested upon second charge of forgery
was again taken before magistrate and
gave bail. On the following Friday
evening he was arrested third time
and taken to the city Jail. Next Satur-
day he was again arrested and subse.
-quently admitted to bail. Damron then
went minutely into the details of his
going into hiding in rooms and 8, on
the third floor of the Reddick block
on the corner of First and Broad
way, and it was evident that he
was trying to impress upon the jury the
idea that he was bounded down by the
officers of the law, and that he was alto.
gether very much abused individual
He then proceeded to tell Of his trip
to San Francisco in the latter part ol
April, 1890, with Hervey Lindley, with
whom he had conversation one even.
ing in the reading-room OF the Palace
hotel, relative to money matters. He
then told Lindley that in few days he
might need from 5000 to $500 badly, and
was assured by his friend that if he was
Il, r nc ApOo1ns wheu ha noodod II he