The herald., 1897-05-22
Mccarthy, the Tunnel Robber,
Gets No Relief
THE ADAMS DAMAGES NIL
MRS. "A. ELLIS WANTS $25, 900
FROM THE TRACTION co.
Suit by the Main Street Road-Pawn-
brokers Unite to Fight an Ordi-
:. nance-Heavy Batch of
SuitS-Court Notes

0UlCS-kOuIL NOLSS
The affairs of the Leonis estate are SC
far-reaching in their complicated rami-
fications that it is not matter of very
great surprise that the long series of
civil proceedings is beginning to be
punctuated with criminal prosecutions
In the township court yesterday, old
Mrs. Leonis-or Maria Espiritu c. dc
Leonis, to be more precise-was exam
ined before Justice Young on the charge
of perjury. The complaint against the
defendant was sworn to by Major Hor-
ace Bell and the alleged perjury was
committed upon one of the collateral is
sues Of the great Leonis estate.
The contention inquired into yester-
day was that on April 26th of this year
Mrs. Leonis committed perjury in the
pending suit of Elizabeth Murray VS..
Laurent Etchepare, Maria Espiritu C..
de Leonis, Thomas Wilkerson ct al. On
April 18th a judgment by default was
made and entered in that action in IA
yor of the plaintiff and against MIS-.
Leonis and T. Wilkerson; but on the 9th
instant an affidavit was filed for the pur-
pose of having the judgment set aside,
and this document was sworn to by
Mrs, Leonis In it she alleged that or
July 81, 1894, under the influence and
persuasion of Horace Bell, who was at
that time acting as the attorney for her
and also for Laurent Etchepare, in the
g h tot nf l.
guel Leonis, she conveyed to Laurent
Etchepare 1850 acres of the Rancho
las Virgines, and other lands, in consid-
Grafton of $4,000.
1t is utterly impossible to get any
thing like even superficial knowledge
of the diverse interests involved in the
Leonis case without wading through
document is sufficient to form enough
volumes for tidy little library; and,
furthermore, such study would tend to
inebriety or the insane. asylum. 1t will
suffice to say, therefore, that this affida-
Wit had a very distinct bearing on one
branch of the Leonis estate, and in some
measure reflected upon the bona-fides of
Major Bell, as the legal adviser of Mrs.
Leonis.
A vast mass of irrelevant testimony
was presented yesterday, but in order
that the conditions surrounding the con-
veyance of the property, which the affi-
davit indicated was made by Mrs. Leon
is on the advice of Major Bell, all the
facts bearing upon that transfer of in
terest was considered valid testimony
as tending to show whether perjury had
been committed. In any case it is
scarcely supposable, and presumably
Major Bell himself, in adopting legal
method to justify himself, did not wish
to claim that Mrs. Leonis committed
perjury of the calculating, cold-blooded
kind She is an old Mexican woman,
with a strong strain of Indian blood.
speaking no English and utterly ignor-
ant, and so Major Bell himself spoke Of
her in one of the documents admitted in
evidence.
But even apart from it's bearing on the
present case. the story of the convey
ance of her estate Mrs. Leonis to Lau-
rent Etchepare is of interest. At that
time the latter was the old lady's attor-
ney in fact and Major Bell was attorney
for Etchepare. In testifying to the mo-
dus operandi of the transfer Major Bell
stated that an inspiration occurred to
him, and he did what he had never done
before. Often he had drawn up deeds
for Spanish-speaking clients, and had
them acknowledged before General
Chapman, whose office is in the same
building, but upon this occasion he
thought on account of the Importance
of the transaction he would get notary
who could speak Spanish, and who in
other words than he had himself en-
plOyed could explain to Mrs. Leonis the
Importance of the act she was about to
consummate. So Sam Prayer, the notary
public. was called in, and yesterday he
testified that while he was talking to
Mrs. Leonis Major Bell and Laurent
Etchepare left the office. He read to the
old lady the description of the property
about to be transferred and the amount
of the consideration, but he really
couldn't say whether she understood him
or not. She did, however, tell him to
write her name and she made her mark.
Mr. Prayer failed to remember to whom
he had given this valuable document,
whether TO Mrs Leonis, to Laurent
Etchepare or somebdy else.
1t is contended on behalf of Mrs.
Leonis that the transfer came to be made
in this way: She owned extensive lands
in the Rancho la Virgines, but the old
home was on government land, and here
her people had lived for 25 or so years.
She was advised that she couldInot prove
up on this government land. and
rest happy in knowing that the old
home was beyond peradventure hervery
own, while holding in her own name
title to SO many adjacent acres. 1t was
then suggested by Laurent Etchepare
tina. she make conveyance of her pos
save the government land to
him. 1t was in carrying out this scheme.
II 1t can be called such, that the convey
ance was made by Mrs. Leonis to her at
torney, in fact, Laurent lctchepare
But she claims. 60 it is said, that the un-
derstanding was that conveyance should
be made of the 1167.20 acres of the
Rancho la Virgines only, whereas the
added words of the deed of conveyance
transferred somewhere about 5000 acres
scattered elsewhere The entire prop
erty is supposd to be worth S109, ,000 con-
veyed away for the consid Grafton of $1O,-