The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-04-17

The trial of Alma Hague for embez-
element, which has been on in the fed
eral court the past three days, will ter
inmate today. The government rested
its case at 4:3O yesterday afternoon,
and the defense, again waving its
opening statement, proceeded at once
to the examination of Witnesses. At
ter taking the testimony of four, an adj
journment was asked and granted till
this morning at $3.50. The defense ex-
poets to occupy about an hour and a
half this morning in the further taking
of testimony. The arguments are then
expected to consume about five or six
hours altogether. The case should
therefore go to the jury not later than
o'clock this afternoon.
The evidence offered by the prosecu-
ton yesterday was entirely of an eX-
pert nature with the exception of the
testimony of ]. C. Lester, who was put
on the stand to identify the draft
drawn in his favor by Hague for
1.929.1O. on the Deseret National bank
of Salt Lake The expert testimony
was intended to show that the notes
which have formed the basis OF the
trial, the prosecution endeavoring to
prove them to have been falsely ut
tered, were forged by the defendant.
The witnesses for the defense testi-
fed mainly to the hitherto good char
acter of the accused, but they also eX-
pressed the opinion that the notes had
not been signed by him.
The proceedings, which were exceed
ingly dull and uninteresting through
out the day, were enlivened at the close
of the morning session by tilt be-
tween counsel Judge Howat, for the
government, was examining a witness
and endeavoring to draw from him a
statement that the defendant had tried
to borrow money from him with which
to buy jurors, when Judge King
jumped to his feet and objected, ex-
claiming hotly: It's wrong and coun-
sci knows himself it's improper"
Judge Howat replied spiritedly,
questioning the right of opposing coun-
sci TO impute dishonest motives to him.
The breeze blew over with no more
serious consequences than a general
laugh when the taking of the witness
testimony had been completed and he
had forgotten who the jurors were af-
ter once practically admitting the pos
session of the knowledge.
The evidence the defense will offer
today will be calculated to prove that
the alleged forged instruments were
regularly made and there will be more
of the same sort of testimony which
they submitted yesterday. Hague's at
torneys have decided they will not put
him on the srand.
PROGRESS OF THE TRIAL.
j. c. Lester. of ting Lombard Invest
ment company, was the first witness
examined in the morning He identi-
fed the draft drawn in his favor by
Hague as cashier of the First National
of Nephi, on the Deseret National, of
Salt Lake. The prosecution had SUBJ
mitted all it's evidence that this draft
and the one drawn on Koontz Bros
of New York, in favor of Louis Hect,
had been paid and it at this time
proceeded to prove that the drafts had
never been charged to any one on the
banks books.
EXPERT KNAUSS CALLED.
To prove this J.bH. Knauss, of Og-
den, an expert accountant was called.
He was given the books of the First
National of Nephi and asked to go
through them and ascertain if there
had been any charge made of the in
struments. After a thorough search
he testified that the books contained no
record Of any charge having been
made either TO Hague or anyone else.
Witness also swore to being a hand
writing expert and was asked for his
opinion as such, as to whether the
alleged false notes had been drawn
and signed by the same hand. Witness
carefully inspected all the notes in
question, then testified that he had
no hesltancy in saying at least nine
OF them were both drawn and signed
by the same person. They were the
Collins, Seeley, Caldwell, Hatch, Greg
DRY, James c. Jensen, Christensen.
charles Jensen and Ingram Bros.
notes. The Evans note he thought
was also in the same hand. and that
the writing on all was Alma Hague's.
On cross-eXamination the witness adj
mitted never having seen any writing
which he knew positively was Hague's
put based his Judgment on the previous
testimony that the notes had been
drawn by the defendant.
The defense had the witness go over
the bank books again and succeeded
IN showing that the S61S note of Walter
l. Brown had been renewed contrary
TO the statement of Brown on the
stand the day before.
]. R. HICKMAN.
j. R. Hickman was called to testify
that as recorder of Juab county he had
taken the j. c. Lester draft from the
defendant to hold until certain
mortgage had been released at which
time he had given 1t to Lester.
SUBORNATION ALLEGED.
Andrew Jensen. purporting to have
enaorSed the j. c. Jensen note, being
calied' denied having done so and dis
canned any knowledge of the note.
Judge Howat, who was conducting
the examination, then asked the wit.
ness II 1t was not fact that the de-
Lendant had come to him during the
former trlaI and asked to borrow $50.
saying he wanted to fix a couple of
1urymen. Judge King jumped to his
feet and exclaimed angrily: 81 object.
your honor. The question is wrong,
proper"
Judge Howat took exception to coun-
sells language, which he considered an
lmputation of dishonest motives, and
tnen argued that the question was
competent Tor the reason that the de-
PENDANT had been on trial charged with
forging the Ingram note at the time,
ana that that note was mentioned in
the indictments upon which defendant
was now being tried. He proceeded
TO read authorities to sustain his po-
sition, but had only read one when he
was cut short by the court, who held,
after hearing the defense, that the
question was proper, but in relation
10 the one Indictment only, allowing
the witness to proceed, stating that he
would so instruct the Jury.
Witness then testified that Hague
hadleome to him to borrow $50 during
The former trial and had informed him
that it had come to him (Hague)
through friends that two of the Jurors