New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-11-12
BOLTE OUT, CROSS REINSTATED
APPELLATE DIVISION FINDS CHARGES AGAINST
MUNICIPAL COURT JUSTICE PROVEN
Old Pe-Dismssal of Captain Fitzpatrick
Uphed-More Inspectors Than ANo:ced by Lou.
BACK FOR SECOND TINE.
Court Thinks Blame Should Hare
Fallen ON Captains.

The Appellate Division Of the Supreme Court
Yesterday handed down a decision reinstating
Adam A. Gross as an inspector Of police. Ever
since the recent reinstatement Of Inspector
Donald Grant and Captain John T. Stephenson,
who were dism Used by General Greene on sim
liar charges Of neglect OF duty. the return OF
eros. to the police force has been expected
Like Stephenson, Cross gets back on the force
a second time after being dismissed. AS a cap
tain. Cross was convicted of blackinail by the
OLD Board OF Police In 1894 and was dismissed.
He set back by the courts and later was
promoted to be an inspector. He was the COM
mander of the Red Light" district including
several precincts east of the Bowery. in the Van
Wyck administration. He made sensational
raids in that district in the early part Of the
Low administration, causing the dismissal OF
Churchill, the acting captain in Fifth-st., but
after General Greene became Police Commits
sioner charges against Cross were drawn by
District Attorney JeronIe covering period OF
the Van Wyck administration. 1t was on these
charges that General Greene dismissed Cross on
May 6, 1903 after a long trial.
The reinstatement of Cross probably Will be
regarded by Police Commissioner McAdoo as an
additional argument for the plan of creating
police court martial. from the decisions of which
there could be no appeal to the courts. He has
convicted captain or inspector off the force. He
said yesterday that only fifteen inspectors are
allowed by law. but the reinsta tement of Cross
and Grant have made the total seventeen. Mr..
McAdoo said he would have to make place for
Cross until there were more vacancies, and pro-
vide for his pay out Of the contingent fund, as
has been done in the case of Inspector Grant,
who is in charge of the Street Traffic Bureau.
While the Appellate Division finds that the
proofs against Cross were not sufficient to war
rant his dismissal. it decides in the case of
Captain Fitzpatrick. also dismissed by General
Greene, that the charges of neglect of duty were
we'll founded and supported by evidence. and
Fitzpatrick will have to stay off the force. In
the case Of Fitzpatrick, too. the court decides
that his application for retirement before the
charges were served on him was no bar to the
action Of the Police Commissioner in forcing the
trial Fitzpatrick accused of permitting
dens of vice in his precinct to unmoIested
after he had been warned to suppress them.
In its decision in favor of Cross the Appellate
Division declares that the record of the trial
shows that Cross was active in breaking up i'm
moral houses and poolrooms in his district, and
that the morality of his district was improved
greatly during his administration. The record
also shows, the court says that Cross investi-
gated all complaints with the means at his dis
posal but was obliged to depend on the help of
captains of precincts in the district account
of the great number of the complaints, and there
is intimation that the blame for falling to
close the poolrooms and dens of vice
toned in the charges should fall the
captains than on the inspector The court
ord. il is declared, does not show that any
charge Of receiving money for protecting any
OF the places mentioned was made supported
by evidence.
The court therefore orders the reinstatement
of Cross as an inspector Of police. with costs
and disbursements and back pay. Cross has
been policeman since October 16, 1873, and he
will be able TO retire a pension if he desires
as soon as he is fifty-fve years old. In the ar
gument of his before the court Elihu Root
appeared for Cross, and It was his first case be-
fore the Appellate Division after his retirement
as Secretary of War.