The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-07-12
FIRST CASE OF ITS KIND
UNITED STATES SENATOR Is
CHARGED WITH A FELONY
Cashier BOggs, of the First Ma
tiOnal Bank of Dover, in Defraud-
Ing That Institution to the
Amount of $IO7,
Kenney's Alleged Implication.

WILMINGTON, July II. A trial
probably unprecedented in the annals
of this country, that Of a United States
senator on criminal charge,
began in the United States
circuit court in this city, be-
fore judge Ernest Bradford. The
defendant is Richard Rollin Henney,
of Dover, junior United States senator
from Delaware, indicted upon a charge
of aiding and abetting William Bpggs,
who has confessed to robbing the First
National bank, of Dover, Of which in
st1tutfon he was paying teller, of the
sum of 100000. The count in the in
dictments to which Senator Kenney has
pleaded not guilty, charges him with
aiding and abetting Boggs to the extent
of $500. Two men, Ezekiel Cooper, of
Milford, and Thomas S. Clark, of Do
yer, have already been convicted of
similar charges, and arc now aefvirg
terms of eighteen months and five
years, respectively, in the Delaware
penitentiary. Boggs was the principal
witness for the prosecution in each
case. His story was to the effect that
the greater part of his stealings were
expended in stocks and speculations
and gambling, and that in the stock
speculations the defendants were asso-
ciated with him by participating in his
deals, and that they gave him their
checks when there were no funds in
the bank to their account, Boggs TAX
ing care of them from the banks funds.
The high character of the defendant
drew large crowd to the court, which
overJammed it's capacity and overflow
ed to the halls.
CASE OPENED.
The session began at 10 o'clock, when
panied by his counsel, Hon. George
Gray and Levi Bird, of this city. The
government was represented by Dis
trict Attorney Lewis Vandergrift
AS soon as the defense had renewed
the formal plea Of not guilty, which
had been Withdrawn pending argument
on demurrers to the indictment, as
result of which fourteen COUNTS in the
indictment, charging conspiracy with
Eoggs. had been ruled out, leaving
eleven counts charging 81 g and abat-
ting, the work of drawing the jury WAS
commenced. 1t occupied nearly an
hour, both sides closely scrutinizing
each juror called and exercising their
full powers of challenge.
The first witness was Harry A. Rich
ardson, president of the, bank He tes-
titled as to the defalcation by Boggs,
and said that Boggs admitted to him
MS crime. InlS was all the govern
ment brought out from President Rich
ardson, but the defense put him
through long crcss-examination bear
| ing upon the fact that he never had
| any suspicion of Boggs' dishonesty
until after his fight, when the defal-
cation was discovered He admitted
| that he once heard that Boggs was adj
dicted to poker, but on being brought
before the directors and charged with
this derelictioa, Bogss confessed and
promised to play no more.
! Edward Ross, Of Philadelphia, an eX-
! pert who went over the banks books,
| testified that the defalcation amounted
| to $107, 000 He also said that he found
| that various checks drawn by Mr. Ken
ney had come to the bank and been
cashed when he had not a sufficient
| balance to his credit to meet them.
E. D. Page, CT Philadelphia, who was
| manager for the firm OF brok-
ers with which Boggs conducted his
stock specula tio-s, testified that checks
signed by Kenney were used in the
| stock transactions. All were produced
and offered in evidence, all but one for
| $3.50, and the defense objected to testi-
mony with regard to this one.
| Pending decision on this objection
the court adjourned until tomorrow
| morning.