Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-21
DENIED NEW TRIAL
GASSENHEIMER SENTENCED tt
PENITENTIARY.
Justice Wright Overrules Motion of
Attorney and an Appeal
is Noted.

was convicted, after two mistrials, of re-
ceiving tickets embeZzled from the Balti-
| more and Ohio Railroad Company, knowing
them to have been embezzled, was ended
today, so far as the trial court was con-
cerned, when Justice Wright, in Criminal
Court No. /, overruled motions for a new
trial and in arrest of judgment and sem
fenced the defendant to penitentiary i'm
prisonment for two years. An appeal to
the Court of Appeals was promptly noted,
and Mr.. Gassenheimer was permitted to re-
main at liberty, on the surety heretofore
furnished by him.
AS stated, the case was tried three times
The juries that sat in connection with the
first and second trials were unable to agree
and were discharged. AS the climax of the
third trial the jury reported verdict OF
guilty, qualified with recommendation of
mercy. The case was made sensational by
charges that attempts were made to cor
rupt one of the juries. Further, WELL
known business man of this city was ad-
judged to be in contempt Of court and was
sentenced to be imprisoned in the District
Jail for six months for an alleged attempt
to influence juror in behalf of the de-
PENDANT.
The motions for new trial and in ar
rest of judgment were argued today by At
torney Henry E. Davis of counsel for the
defense. Assistant United States Attorney
Easily Smith submitted the matter without
III UtildlI VI Tie SoNcTHEntnl
Remarks by Justice.
Prior to overruling the motions and i'm
posing sentence Justice Wright said:
1.-The defendant stands convicted of fe-
loniously receiving embezzled railroad tick
cts, themselves Of inconsiderable value,
yet the proof shows this to have been but
single instance out of a routine Of daily
offendings.
IF the fruits of theft and embezzlement
could in no wise be turned to the advantage
of the thief theft and embezzement would
disappear. He who stands ready to barter
with thieves for the fruits of crime it is
who makes men thieves; not only one but
many thieves, for the ever-present influence
Of his readiness makes the weak to yield
and fall If temptation is but Joined with
opportunity, and according as the standard
Of his dealings is the smaller and the more
petty the larger is the number of those who
may be tempted by him. and so the more
far-reaching is his influence for evil and
the more is he menace to the equilibrium
of social order.
He who deals in the fruits of petty
thfevery animates kind of thievery for
which all persons, all the time, have OPP
portunity; instigates certain lawless-
ness which is within the reach of all per-
sons to perpetrate all the time.
LAS the course of the defendants trial
went forward it was made plain that he
was not hurried into crime by the distress
of poverty, the spur of want, the fire of
heated blood, nor even was he undone by
the lure of a temptation set before him;
but with business well established,
financial horizon unclouded, prosperity
seemingly secure under the benefcent
guardianship of the law he with deliber-
ately calculated wantonness, made choice
to affront the law; not once but with
planned and systematic regularity that
grew to be habitual.
Sought to Overset Law.
'sWhen detected, he forthwith sought to
again overset the law of the land by coun-
selling the concealment or flight of those
who could bear witness against him; when
at last brought to his trial, he undertakes
again to thrust aside the course of justice
and the law, through bribery and other
means endeavoring to corrupt its very min
listers; not only are the persons entrusted
with the execution of the laws inclted to
be no longer subject to their direction, but
justice shall be betrayed at money price.
1.-THE nature of the offense of which the
defendant stands convicted and the nature
of the obstacles which he has opposed in
the path of its punishment bear a common
characteristic-that of a habtual readiness
for the corruption of those charged with
the obligation cf fduciary duty to others;
fiduciary duty both private and public; &
readiness to incite these to PROSTATE honor
and betray their trust for money, begin
ming with the debauchment of a long
trusted, long-faithful employee of the rail-
road company and hating not at the por-
tails of the court room, but invading even
there. for the defilement of justice herself.
1.-The practice known 'boodling;' a
canker ever working in the darkness, hid
den from the light of day, but ceaselessly
sapping at the fidelity of the peoples min
listers to the peoples trust. is a menace to
the stability of government, than which
none other is graver.
1.-The suggestion that this offense, and
these practices are no more than trivial,
cannot prevail before the foregoing con-
siderations.
Both the nature of the offense and the
attempt to bride the jury must be taken
into consideration in making up the sem
tence, and while the law In its sentences
deals as mercifuly as may be compatible
with it's spirit that the example of the sem
tence shall be sufficient to deter Others
from offending in like manner, yet a sys-
tenn of laws which would withdraw all Sc
verify of punishment from such offendings
neither should nor would be tolerated by a
law-loving people