The morning call., 1893-02-21
Evidence Given by State
Officials.
DEPUTY LAWSON "ROASTED."
First Days Proceedings in the Inves-
tigation of the Attorney-GeneraI.
A Session Here To-Day.
Special to THE MORNING CALL

first meeting in the Supreme COURTROOM d.
10 o'clock this morning.
Mathews. Tindall, Kahn, Mack and Simp-
son, the committee. were all present AT
torney. General Hart was represented oy
General Barnes, ex-Congressman D. ID
Budd and f. NJ. Stone. K L. DeVlin was
present as attorney for the committee.
Barnes asked if it were usual for the COM
mittee to have an attorney. Chairman Ma
thews said it was not usual, but TINS COM
mittee intends to establish such precedent.
This seemed to crush the general, and ne
Immediately subsidized.
Devlin then read the charges preferred by
the Committee On Ways and Means against
Hart. and suggested that the first matter TO
INQUIRE into be the charge of retaining
public money.
j. P LanghOrne, the San Francisco at
torney, was then sworn. BE stated that ne
was employed by the Acknowledgement In
the suits TO recover on bonds given by ex-
Harbor Commissioner Banding. In No
vember, 1892, Mr.. Quackenbush paid him
s1l2O in settlement OF the case OF Blanding,
and on November % he paid the money to
Hart. When the act was PASSED directing
the Attorney General to compromise the
cases against the other Harbor Commission
ers. witness firm had no further connection
with them. So he did not know how or
when any other money was paid to Hart.
Witness said he was employed by Attor-
nev-General johnson in 1889 to take the
cases against Knight, Phillips and Bland
ing, Harbor Commissioners, which had
then been pending since 1884 Last month
be had written to the Committee on Ways
and Means. asking it to report a bill to pay
his fees. as he understood Hart had paid
the money into the treasury.
From this point Devlin attempted to prove
the amounts Hart had received. and when,
as Barnes said, he would admit nothing.
this led to a wraDgle, during which Barnes
protested vigorously against the committee
employing q lawyer TO assault Hart. He
also objected to the Committee on Ways and
Means finding an indictment. and then
trial being had by committee selected from
the WAYS and Me ans Committee. This was
unfair.
Mathews said this committee was ap-
pointed merely to find the facts. and in
order to make the inquiry Hart had been
given counsel None of the committee were
LAWYERS. and so Deylin had been called In.
BE saw nothing unfair about that.
Deylin replied to Barnes. whose remarks
he characterized as bosh. The duty of this
committee was to find the facts, and it need
not fer any proof whatever. The object
was to give Hart hearing, and nothing
else.
It was finally decided to produce Harris
complaint in Judge Levy's court for the
purpose OF proving the amounts Of money
he received and the dates on which they
were paid
When this was produced by Controller
Colgan it showed that Hart had received.
according to his own admission. S17.S51 "a.
OF this SIPS was paid by Phillips bonds
men on August 80, 1891; S2404 by Knights
bOndsmen October %. 1892 and S7717 by
Blandihg's ;bondsmen February Z, 1898.
The amount paid by Banding's bOndsmeR
was in two nstallments but that difficulty
was circumvented by Barnes promising to
supply the dates and amounts when the
committee meets in San Francisco.
Witness Langh0rne then went on to tes-
tify that his connection with the cases
ceased when the act was passed compromis-
Ing them and directing that the money be
paid to Attorney General Hart. This was
Ia March. 1891 After that. however, hart
consulted him with reference to the cases
frequently.
Hart asked him once 10 urge the bonds
meu to settle. aad witness had written sew
sral letters on the subject. On one occa-
sion Hart wrote letter TO the State Board
Of Examiners, setting forth the terms of
settlement, and asking permission to close
t. which the firm Of Laughorne & Miller,
as special counsel. indorsed.
Witness did not know what fund the
money should have been paid into, but
b ing in the nature of pen allies, he had
thought. until Judge Levy decided other
wise, that it should go into the general fund
Of the State. Hart had never asked him
what fund to pay the money into. but he
had heard him frequently say that he was
in doubt and intended to bring a suit to
determine the question. AS a matter Of
law, witness did not think Harris bondsmen
would be liable in case the Controller certi-
fed the money to the wrong fund.
Barnes cross-examined witness at some
length on the point. but Langhorne stuck
to his opinion. He thought a suit by the
HarbOr Commissioners TO recover from
Hart's b0ndsmen in case the money had
been paid into the wrong fund could not be
sustained. He thought that when Hart
paid The money to the Controller his liabil-
iry ended.
Having ascertained these facts, Chairman
Mathews said that the only further fact
necessary to determine in relation to this
money was whether Hart was justified in
retaining it as long as be did. He thought
Hart could testify to this.
Barnes objected to Harris testifying until
the cast was made out against him.
E. P. Colgan. State Controller, next took
the stand. He stated that he had written
Hart, asking for a statement of money he
had collected in various cases. as Colgan
was DESTROYS of closing up the affairs at the
ending of the fiscal year. copy of the
letter was read by him. Harris reply was
also read, to the effect that there were other
claimants to the moneys, and that as soon
at settlement was made be had agreed to
cauZ> a suit to be brought to decide to
whom the money should be paid.
Colgan gave further evidence In relation
to the methods of paying money into and
getting it out of the Harbor Commission
fund. He said the first inform alton be re-
ceiyed that Hart had any money in his
hands was from Mathews Of the Ways ard
Means Committee, who asked him where it
was. Prior to that he knew nothing about
the matter, except that Hart was authorized
to compromise the suits. Colgan said he
understood it to be Harris duty to pay the
money in as soon as he received il, and that
it was his (Colgan's) duty to demand Il. AS
soon as he heard of Hart having any money
be went after him to get 1t. and he read a
letter making a demand on Hart, dated May
81, 1892.
The committee met again at O'Clock,
when M. r. Higgins the Governors pri-
vate secretary. was called. He was asked
10 produce petition which had been drawn
mp and signed asking for the removal of W.
d. Layson, Deputy Attorney General. The
petition reads as follows:
Hon. ". Il. H. Hart, Attorney. General-DEAR
SIR; The undersigned would respectfully repre-
sent that great Inconvenience Is caused to the
various State officers by reason NJ hafuv oor,