The San Francisco call., 1905-02-07
GRAND JURY BLOCKED.
Foreman ANDREWS Says Inquiry Into
Chinatown Graft Is Ended.


"The Grand Jury is now through
with investigation of police corruption
in Chinatown" said Foreman Andrews
yesterday LAS is set forth in our re-
port, the announcement of the Police
Commission that it would proceed with
its inquiry thwarted all our plans. We
will drop the whole matter and devote
ourselves to other things"
The foreman expresses regret that
the Grand Jury could take no steps to
prosecute the bribe takers because all
the evidence available is that of CO.
conspirators and the statute is explicit
that there can be no conviction on
such evidence unless it is corroborated
by other witnesses.
1--WE had hopes" continued the
foreman, that we might find an in
dictment against Chan Cheung for
bribing the police, but District Attor-
ney Byington advised us that mas
much as the testimony was all that of
fellow conspirators, we could not do
so.'
Concerning the report that the
Grand Jury had assured Ellis that he
would be taken care Of because he
made g clean breast of everything,
mo promise was made to Ellis or any
other policeman by myself or any
member of the Grand jury" asserted
the foreman.
It appears that the police commit
tee of the Grand Jury had very little
difficulty in extracting the confession
fronlsEllis. I'VE had a line of his ac-
ceptfng money from Chan Cheung,
Andrews explains, and after plying
him with questions for about an hour
and half he began to make admfs-
sions. 1t took some time to get the
whole story from him, but ne nnally
told freely everything in connection
with: his wrongdoing.
I'VE asked him what became of the
$1,000 he had received and he said ne
had kept most of it. / sent for car
riage at night and he took me to his
home, where he had 1880 concealed
in the china closet.
when pressed as to what became
of the rest Of the money Chan Cheune
Had paid him he insisted that he had
spent 1t in personal use. He denied
repeatedly under a hot fire of ques-
tioEing that he had shared his collec-
tions with any one or had agreed to
do So Asked if Chief Whitman or any
higher official was to get part OF the
graft Ellis answered no time and time
again and asserted positively that there
was no 'divvying The money was all
for himself he said.
ellis, statement to. us of the con-
spiracy of the Chinatown squad was
cprroborated in part by the confessions
of Patrolmen Henry M. Heinz and r,
K. OBrien that they accepted $40 a
week from Chan Cheung. These three
policemen were the only members OF
the squad that acknowledged Their
guilt. All the others were called, but
under the most rigid examination made
stout denial.
I'VE tried to follow up Ellis state
ment that Sergeant Christensen told
him to call on Chan Cheung for dis
bursements from the sack. But Chris
tiansen said that he never knew OF
Chan Cheung's control of the corrup-
ton fund and met everything with q
square denial. We could do nothing
with only one mans statement against
another's.
Probably things would have de-
] veloped along the whole line had the
Police Commissioners not interfered
with our plans. We had a campaign
carefully mapped out, but everything
went awry and now we have been com
PEELED to give up what looked for q
while like a promising field. Char
Cheung thwarted us, of course, for in
view of Ellis confession we expected
to break him down.
'The result is very unsatisfactory tc
me. We wanted to get somebody
higher up. There is not much salts
faction in exposing Sergeant Ellis and