The herald., 1897-11-23

terday, however, several witnesses
were put forward by the defense. who
gave short but pertinent testimony
Robert Wienkowski. the teller al
the State Loan and Trust Com
pany bank, after examining the
three checks bearing Mr.. Grif-
fith's signature, and which he later re-
pudiated. stated that they were actually
signed by Griffith. He stated that he
gave that testimony not as an expert or
handwriting, but simply as one whose
duty it was to make himself conversant
| with the signatures Of the banks depos-
itors.
Assistant District Attorney Williams
cross-examined the witness regarding
the "ri'' in the name of Griffith, and
brought forward two magnified photo
graphs of the signature in order to prac-
tically contradict the statements of Mr..
Wienkowski. A howl went up from the
defending counsel at this attempt on the
part of the district attorney to reopen
the case in chief. but Mr.. Meserve
said he would allow prosecuting counse.
to put the photos" in if the state would
pay for having the signatures put on the
other checks being made, as the defense
had no money to eXpend in such way.
The court thought matters We're get
ting rather tangled up. 1t held that th>
photos ought to have been put in. if the
prosecution wanted them In. when tn"
case in chief was made out
Resumng, Mr. WienkowslSi maintain
ed that when he went from the bank for
luncheon he locked the cage up. and all
checks were then paid al the other VIM
I l. -tpv Aff te.
other teller. In answer to Mr. Williams
question, he said that while he could not
say absolutely that no one could get into
his compartment during his absence. it
not being burglarproof. yet. ordinarily
speaking. no one could get in.
Mark Lewis, assistant cashier of the
State Loan and Trust company since
last April, and for fifteen years in the
banking business, also testified that. to
the best of his belief. the checks submit
ted for his inspection had all been signed
by ]. G. Griffith.
Evidence was then put in by A. Grove.
teller of the bank. to prove that Mr.. Grif-
fifth drew a check for $40 80 on April 10.
1897. for eastern exchange in order to
combat the assertion of the prosecuting
witness that any exchange had been OBJ
tanned on that date.
Attorney Pendleton, of counsel for the
defense, then went upon the stand and
gave some information regarding the
exporting of the checks by Mr. Seaver
the handwriting expert of the prosecu-
ton. He testified that he had a CONVEX
saton with Seaver, and asked him to look
over the checks in possession of the
r1n fter dnir he told witness:
that the signatures to all We're bona fide.
but the exceptional case didn't seem to
him exactly right. The matter rested
then until about week ago. and while
Witness and one Carrck were passing
the Richelieu cigar stand they met Sea-
yer. Witness then had the checks in
his pocket. and he asked Seaver to come
down and have a look at them again.
Seaver said all right. that he could pick
out the forgerieS, and that there were
several Of them. Going into one of the
private rooms of the Richelieu saloon
Seaver took the package of checks and
he threw the ones he considered good in
one pile and the alleged forgeries in an
other. There We're seven picked out az
forgeries. Mr.. Pendleton was somewhat
surprised. for at the preliminary cxami-
nation it had been claimed that the sig
natures on eight checks We're forgeries
There We're eleven checks in the good
pile, and upon drawing Seaver's atten-
ton to one that had been disputed was
told that Griffith was mistaken with re-
gard to that one, and that it was good
check.
Upon REORGANIZATION, Mr. Pendle-
ton conceded that he had apologizrd to
Seaver for going on the witness stand.
inpugning his statements. Certain
statements having been made by the
however he had no option
in the matter in justice to his client. and
such being the case, he had toNd Seaver
he was himself going upon the witness
stand. Mr.. Pendleton denied having
taken Carrick into the saloon with Sea
yer and himself, in order that he might
be ready to testify at later date against
the prosecutions expert. but asked him
to go as he was in his company at the
time, and it would have been discour-
teous to do otherwise.
That ended the defendants case.
Mr.. Williams put Expert Seaver upon
the witness stand again and wanted to
go into the matter of the forged sig
natures again. this not being rebuttal
was blocked out by the court, and the
closed its case
A little crossfire of words between
counsel served to mark the close of the
testimony. Mr.. Williams was not quite
ready to begin the arguments and plead
ed surprise. The defense contended,
however. that on Saturday they had
stated they would only occupy half an
hour on Monday morning and as mat
ter of fact they had taken up one and a
half hours of time. Finally Judge Smith
allowed an adjournment until 1:30 and At
that hour Judge Campbell opened the
arguments for the prosecution. He did
not occupy much time in summarizing
and closed about a quarter
before three o'clock Attorney Cope
land of defending counsel, followed and
Williams, analyZing the testimony,
made a general review of it. While cred
iting Mr.. Griffith with many creditable
characteristics as a public spirited cit
izen, he did not fail to give him, ver-
bally, some hard knocks. At o'clock
he closed and court adjourned until this
morning. Mr.. Meserve will address the
jury for the defense and will in all prob
ability ocupy most if not all of the day
in analyZing the testimony and pointing
out the weaknesses-and they are not
a few-of the prosecutions case.