St. Paul daily globe., 1893-04-20
BURNS ON THE RACK.
The First Case for Fraudu-
lent Bills Is Now Being
Heard.
Evident Intent Of the Defense
to Rely Upon Technical
tiles.
Judge Egan Calls Down Col.
Erwin in the First
Break.
The State Placing the Court
Calendar Bills in Evil
dence.

The court room was we'll crowded
with spectators of the Burns trial yes
terday. The progress of proving the
man guilty of returning false vouchers
Or bills for court calendars has been
slow. and the corpus delicti has not yet
been fully proven. There is a number
of technical questions constantly arls-
ing that retardS the proof of the modus
operandi of getting the bills allowed and
paid. The several attorneys for the de-
Tense are very alert. and contest every
point of the proof with vigor. The case
is now in such shape, however, that
rapid progress may be expected today.
Judge Egan was often called upon yes
terday to overrule objections of tech
nical nature, and at such time frequently
told counsel for the defelse that
he had his own views Of the case.
While he did not desire to decide
the case i'll advance, yet he has clear
views on the matter and believed the
trial court ought to take up no more
than four hours of the courts time. At
one time he curtly asked counsel If the
case was being tried for the benefit of
the supreme court or to get at the plain
facts of the case. The court stated
number of times that it did not desire
to go into a long explanation of the rea-
sons of its rulings, as it might be con-
Sidered as deciding the case Ill advance.
The defense, in its croSS-eXamination
of eX-AuditOr kain, sought TO bring out
the point that the bills were presented
by the expert printer and not by Burns
and to relieve the latter of technical
guilt Mr.. Erwin made an argument to
the court in this line, and asserted that
it was the act of the expert printer-lt
was mis- bill.
Technically Knocked Out.
Judge Egan quickly interrupted the
noled criminal lawyer with the elacHla-
ton, You are wrong. colonel! You
are wrong. The man who made out the
bill, colonel, is the man who set the pro-
iectile in mOtion-he fired the cannon.
He is in the same position as the man
who bought railroad-he owns the
bill. The bill was presented by Burns,
and the expert printer is not the nan
who should shoulder the blame"
In his opening TO the jury, the county
attorney stated that Burns was put on
trial for presenting to the board of
county commissioners a false bill for
printing the court calendar for the
month of June. 1891, with the intent to
defraud the county. He had presented
bill to the county for 80 printed pages,
$500 sheets of ruled paper and 4S0
pounds of paper, whereas he had act
ually supplied the courts with calen-
dar containing but 152 pages and $3.50
ruled sheets. On this false bill he col
laafai [2Ol NNhiln fhA aOfnol
coming to him was SlSl.25, and the over
charge in this one instance was S2lS.35.
Mr.. Butler said that the state would
show that, beginning with the first cal
endar the man furnished to the county,
he had Systematically returned bills for
double the amount of printed pages,
ruled sheets ana IT that he had actu-
ally furnished; ...at he would show
that the OVerchargeS for October. 1890,
were, dropping the cents in each in
stance, S159; for November, $40; for
December, S167; for January, 1891, 1872;
for February. S197: for March. Sl99; tor
April, S202; for May, $205, and for June,
S2lS.35.
The county attorney claimed that
there would be ample proof of the of
fenSe charged. which is an offense pun
iSha5le by Imprisonment in the peni-
or fine of $1,000. or both.
At the conclusion of the opening
speech to the jury, Mr.. Bowe. of counsel
for the defense, moved a dismissal of
the case or the ground that the state
ment of the county attorney as to the
proposed proof is at variance with the
indictment. This motion was Overruled
by Judge Egan.
Case Of the Calendar.
At the opening OF the afternoon ses-
sion eX-COunty Auditor NJ. T. Kain was
put on the witness stand to prove the
presentation of the bill for printing the
court calendar. 1t was developed that
the bills we're left in the Office of the
county auditor, were received by the eX-
pert printer, who turned them over to
the committee on claims or printing
after measuring the work done, and
that afterwards the bills went to the
board of county commissioners, where
they were ordered paid and then turned
over to the auditor, who drew warrant
| for the amount. The drawing out of
| these facts took considerable time, as
the defense offered many objections
and inteTpOsed numerous suggestions as
to the bills being presented for pay
ment not by Burns, but by the county
expert printer, an employe or the
county.
Jerome NJ. Redding, chief deputy
clerk in the office of the clerk of courts,
was called to prove the furnishing of
the calendars ana the general character
thereof. Late in the afternoon the
county attorney offered to prove. in
| addition to the Overcharges for the
April calendar, that other calendars
were gotten up on the same plan of
overchargeS as to pages. etc. There
was objection to this procedure. but the
county attorney insisted upon this
! course to prove the intent. He wanted
to cOntrovert the theory that the April
bill was presented 10y mistake or misad-
! Vertence and show persistent course
of overcharging. Judge Egan con-
| sidered this question worth debating,
! and asked counsel for an argument on
this point. This argument will be made
pro and con at the opening of court this
| morning.
A GENIAL GENTLEMAN