The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1905-06-21
ANDREW L|PSCOMB
NOW FACES A JURY
FOR DEFA FA[CAT|ON
Alleged Embezzler of
Receivership Fund
on Trial.
INDICTED WITH FIELDS
Defendant AfterWard Sc
cured an Order Separat-
ing the Cases.
INDICTED WITH FIELDS

The trial of Andrew A. Lipscomb. a
member of the bar of the District of Co
lumbia, or tie charge OF embezzlement,
was begun this morning in Criminal
Court, No. 1. Justice Wright presiding.
After considerable challenging a jury
was finally obtained and District At
torney Beach made his opening state
ment before the court adjourned for
lunch
In drawing the jury, two or three
Jurors were excused for cause, the Gov
ernment used four challenges, while the
oe1endant objected to ten jurors The
panel was exhausted and the marshal
picked out three or four men from the
court room, and in this manner a jury
was finally agreed upon, made up of
the following men:
Frank A Wright, Frederick H. Brom-
well, ]. s. Burns. William A. Fagin,
Appleton p. Clark. jr., L. Pierce Bote-
Ter. John R. Clark, James r. NaIley,
John Gibson. Walter A. Dixon, Alvey A.
Quade, and Philip Young
Attorneys r. Walton Moore. Edward
defend Mr.. Lipsccmb The Government
Is represented by District ATTORNEY
Beach and Assistant District Attorney
Easby-Smith.
Indicted With Fields.
The indictment on which Lipscomb
was brought to trial was originally
made out against both Lipscomb and
Thomas M Fields. who were joint re-
ceiyers of a fund placed in their hands
by the court Lipscomb secured an or
der separating the defendants and
Fields was brought to trial by himself
early In May and was convicted. Fields
and Lipscomb each lay the blame at
the others door
In the trial of Fields the Indictment
was demurred to, and four of the eight
counts were thrown out by the court
The attorneys for the defense announced
this morning that there would be no
technical defenses raised; that they
wanted to bring the case to fair trial
of whether their defendant was guilty
OF embezzling the funds In question or
not For the purpose of facilitating
matters. a demurrer was allowed to the
four counts thrown out by the court in
the Fields case. and Lipscomb will be
tried on the same counts as Fields.
District Attorneys Statement.
The District Attorney made a brief
but concise statement to the jury, as
follows:
In 1893 or 1894 the Washington Bene-
fcial Endowment Association made a
deed OF all It's property to the CONNER
cial Alliance Company of New York.
The deed had hardly been recorded when
the Washington Beneficial Endowment
Association fled a bill in court to set
aside the deed on the ground that the
grantee had procured 1t by fraud. An
drew A. Lipscomb was the attorney for
the plaintiff in this action. and Thomas
M. Fields represented the New York
company
The court made these two attorneys
joint receivers of the property and in
structed them to sell it and hold the
funds for the benefit of creditors About
$4,000 was realized from the property.
For some time this fund was held with
out out making any investment. but in
1897 the fund was deposited in the
Washington. Loan & Trust Company,
an interest-bearing certificate being re-
ceived from the bank.
Receivers Drew Money.
The government contends that from
time TO time the receivers drew money
from this fund for official and private
use, and will trace the various trausac-
tions by the renewed certificates Ey-
cry time sum was drawn out the old
certificate would be surrender cd and a
new one issued In it's place
Several times the receivers were call
ed upon to report to the court, and once
Mr.. Lipscomb made up small deficit.
In May, 1904, Fields disappeared sud
denly, and afterward Lipscomb appeared
before the. District Attorney and made
statement, and later on swore out a
warrant for the apprehension of Fields.
When Fields reappeared in Washington
and was arrested he made counter
charges. and both lawyers were indicted
together
A separation was secured and Fields
was brought to trial In May of this
year and convicted. Sentence Is sus-
trial