The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-25
CONVICTION IN
 GILLETTE CASE Former Mutual Life Official
 Guilty of Perjury MERCY IS RECOMMENDED Defendant Receives Verdict Calmly and His counseItMoves for Ar
 rest of Judgment Which
 Is Considered.
MERCY IS RECOMMENDED

New York October 2I.-The first con- viction in the cases based on the dis closures in the legislative investigation of insurance affairs of 1905 and 190s was obtained by the district attorneys office tonight, when a jury in the criminal branch of the supreme court found Dr. Walter R. Gillette, former vice president of the Mutual Life 1nsurance company, guilty of perjury in the third degree. The verdict was accompanied with a rec. ommendation for mercy. The maximum penalty for this degree of perjury is ten years imprisonment.
 Upon the report of the jury counsel for Dr. Gillette moved for certificate of reasonable doubt, and an arrest of judg- ment.
 Justice Bowling announced that he would hear the motion next Monday and for the meantime remanded the defend- ant to the Tombs.
 During the trial the defendant had been at liberty under $1O,OOO bond. The jury was out one hour and 25 minutes. In the interval Dr. Gillette chatted with his son and daughtef If he was at all nervous he did not betray his state of mind. When called to face the jury, however, he paled perceptibly, the pallor giving way to a flush as he heard the verdict. For a moment he appeared sur- prised, but promptly recovered himself. He was accompanied by the son and daughter to the entrance to the Tombs.
 Dr. Gillette is 67 years old and is well known in medicine from the practice of which he retired some years ago. He was born in Philadelphia.
 The specific charge upon which Dr. Gillette was found guilty was that he had testified falsely before the grand jury on May "A, at which time he was vice president of the Mutual. The indictment alleged that at that time, under eXami- nation by District Attorney Jerome. he stated that certain moneys in the Dobbs Ferry bank were his personal funds, and that subsequently, under a cross-examina- ton he had admitted the funds were really the property of the Mutual Life.
 When the trial was continued today a motion to quash the indictment on the ground of right of the defendant having been violated. in that he was compelled to give testimony against himself be- fore the grand jury and that he had not taken an oath but had simply af- firmed before giving his testimony, was denied Several witnesses swore to the reputation of the defendant for integrity, after which former Justice Hatch summed up for the defendant. His client, he said, had been made a scapegoat while the really guilty officers of the insurance companies had escaped prosecution. The Dobbs Ferry funds, he said had been given the defendant by President Me Curdy of the Mutual, and his client held the money subject to McCurdys orders. Whatever disposition was made of this money, his client was free of the respon- sibilty Later he wished to return the funds to Jerome. Perjury had not been committed. he said.
 JustiNe Bowling instructed the jury not to be influenced by sympathy or bias. 1t was late in the afternoon when the jury retired.