The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-10-25
CONVICTED
 OF PERJURY .Dr. Gillette is Found
 Guilty. IS REMAEDED TO ToMBs Sentence WuI Be Passed on
 Prisoner Monday.
This is First Conviction in Cases Based oa ths Diselosures in Lesiaiative Investigation of
 Iasursnce Aaairs.

New York, Oct. 24--The first con- viction in the cases based on the dis closures in the legislative investiga : tion of insurance affairs of 1905 -O6. was obtained by the District Attorney's $ office tonight when jury in the crin- .inal branch of the Supreme Court found Dr. Walter R. Gillette. former Vice-President of the Mutual Life In- surance Company, guilty of perjury In the third degree. The verdict was accompanied with a recommendation for mercy. The maximum penalty for this degree Of perjury is ten years im- prtsonment.
 Upon the report of the jury. counsel for Dr. Gillette moved for a certificate of reasonable doubt and an arrest of judgment. Justice Bowling announced that he would hear the motion next Monday and for the meantime remand ed Dr. Gillette to the Tombs. During the trial the defendant had been at liberty under s10,0O0 bond. The jury was out one hour and twenty-five min- utes. In the interval, Dr. Gillette chatted with his son and daughter. If he was at all nervous, he did not be- tray his state Of mind. When called to face the jury, however. he peied perceptibly, the Deilor giving way to a flush as he heard the verdict. For moment he appeared surprised, but promptly recovered himself. He was accompanied by his son and daughter to the entrance to the Tombs.
 Dr. Gillette is 67 years old and Is well-known in medical circles, from the practice of which he retired some years ago. He was born in Philadel- phia.
 The specinc charge upon which Dr. Gillette was found guilty was that he LsaA &aI kmf r.d jury on May 2a, ak which tirne he was vice-President of the Mutual The in- dictment alleged that at that time un. der examination Ny District Attorney Jerome, he stated that certain moneys in the Dobbs Ferry Bank were his per- sonal funds, ana ti5s3 subsequently, un- der crosssexAmlnasit itns hs had ad- lnttted the fussts were rsaiay the prop erty of the Mutual Life. When the trial was continued today, a motion to qtash the indictment on. the. ground of the constitutional right of the de- fendant had been violated in that he was compelled to give testimony against himself before the grand jury and that he had not taken an oath, but had simply affirmed before giving his testimony, was denied.
 Several witnesses swore to the rep utation of the defendant for integrity, after which former Justice Ratch sum mer up for the defendant. His client, he said, had been made a scapegoat while the really guilty officers of the insurance companies had escaped pros- ecution. The Dobbs Ferry funds he said had been given the defendant by President McCurdy of the Mutual and his client held the money subject to McCurdy's orders. Whatever dis position was made of this money. his client was free to the responsibility. Later he wished to return the funds to Jerome. Perjury had been been committed, he said.
 Justice Dooling instructed the jury not to be influenced by sympathy or bias. It was late in the afternoon when the jury retired.