The San Francisco call., 1896-05-16

The story as told to the Grand jury
oates back several years. One OF the VII
nesses said: "During the latter part OF the
lifetime of George Law Smith, Attorney
harvey attended to his law business anu
gave such perfect satisfaction that MT.
Smith placed the utmost confidence In
him. Harvey was conversant with all the
affairs of Smith and advised him regard
ing the various deals and investments
that capitalist might be expected TO
make.
I'm 1890 Mr.. Smith died and his widow
and daughter placed their affairs unre-
servedly in the hands OF Harvey ihey
lett everything to him and according 10
their story did all that he ADVISED ana
wished, never doubling but that he was
always working for their best interests.
"They signed whatever he wanted, sign
Ing without asking any questions, and
never doubted anything proposed oy MIN.
When he told them it was best, they gave
hlm their power of attorney and let him
DO Just as he pleased, provided ne told
them it was for the general good OF the
estate.
when G. L. Smith died he left an estate
valued at over 100000; 100000 was per-
sonal property ana the balance realty.
All the personal property was considered
to be gilt-edged, and consisted of mort
cages, shares of stock ana bonds.
"a short time ago friend advised Mrs.
Smith to ask Harvey to show her all the
papers In his possession and to render
general accounting of his stewardship.
Then the discovery came that many vaiu-
able papers were missing, others were not
what they should be; mortgages had
changed hands, and in some instances
were not recorded and were substituted
for notes OF precarious value.
"The greatest individual loss was 300
shares in the Oakland Gas Company.
Harvey could not produce them, and al
investigation showed very peculiar state
of affairs. A few months ago Harvey
went to Mrs. Smith, and producing her
gas stock, said that he had private deal
to close and wanted to make good show
ing. He told her he had never asked for
favor previously, and if she would just
indorse the stock over to him it would be
a great convenience. Harvey SAID he had
any amount of real estate but he could
not make such a timely showing as he
could with gilt-edged gas stock, so Mrs.
Smith signed as Harvey wished, Just tenn
porarily.'
sit has been discovered that seventy
five shares of the stock were sold last
August, and the balance are yet to be re-
covered.
"When Mr.. Smith died there was q
mortgage of $4,000 on Harvey's own place.
In March, 1894, Harvey told Mrs. Smith
that he wanted to pay off that mortgage
and asked her to sign release. Naturally
supposlng that he had paid the money
into the estate, she signed the release and
recently discovered that the house had
been remortgaged to Emily Barstow of
Oakland for $500 and the note is indorsed
by Harvey and his wife. Another mort
gage of $1,000 is regarded as worthless and
there are several similar transactions. Al
though the whole of the $50, 900 worth of
personal property is not leopardized, it is
not considered that any portion is abso-
lutely safe"
Leroy Harvey lives at 112S Filbert street,
Oakland, with his wife and family. His
friends express great confidence in him and
assert that he will be able to prove that,
though very unsuccessful, his ventures
were undertaken in good faith.
Mr.. Harvey is an an old-time resi-
dent of San Francisco and is well known
as shrewd dealer in real estate. Along
with Masten he managed the deal by
which the property of the new Postoffice
site was secured and sold to the Govern
ment. 1t is thought Harvey made good
round sum Of money in this transaction.
One OF his friends said last night that
there was another side to the story of his
dealings with Mrs. Smith, and that Har-
vey would never be convicted OF embezzle-
ment or grand larceny.