Los Angeles herald., 1907-04-16
SHERIFF AND
CORONER ARE
DISQUALIFIED
New Duties Allotted
to ElisOr
In Addition to Guarding Abe Ruef,
BIggy Is Charged with Sum-
monlns Fifty New
TaIesmen
BY Associated Press.

BY Associated Press.
SAN FRANCISCO, Apri! 15.-For the
second time since the trial of Abraham
Ruef for extortion was begun, Su-
perior Judge Dunno today formally dis
qualified the sheriff and coroner of San
Francisco as untitled by bias, prejudice
and personal interest to perform any
of the functions of the formers Office
in connection with this trial; and for
the second time appointed and admin
istered the oath to William ]. Biggy as
elisor.
Biggy is now charged not only with
the custody of Ruef-whom he keeps
under heavy guard in Fillmore street
boarding house-but also with the sum-
moning of fifty new talesmen to COM
plete the trial panel and with the Gus
tody of the jury when 1t shall have
been selected and sworn.
In the course of today's proceedings
both the defense and the prosecution
scored important points under the rul-
ings of Judge Dunno. The prosecution
submitted three motions
For the disqualification of Sheriff
ONeil and Coroner Walsh as officials
Issuing of special venire, and for the
appointment of an elisor to summon it.
Defense Objects
Against these motions the defense
objected with much spirit and was sus-
tanned by the court on one point
Judge Dunno refused at this time tc
order a special venire, holding that
there appeared no good reason why an
OrIi l.
moned from the regular jury list, or
which 1475 names remained. Fifty
slips were accordingly drawn from the
trial jury wheel, and Elisor Biggy wa:
directed to have the new venire II
court Wednesday morning.
| In arguing for a special venire on tn
ground that 1t could be obtained NOR
quickly than an ordinary venire, Specia
| Prosecutor Johnson remarked that /
has taken more time to examine tho
fourteen talesmen thus far interro'
gated in this case than was occupied
in getting the Durant or the Thav
jury.
There are now nine probationary
Jurors in the box, that number of tales
men having passed the qualification
tests. When three more have taken
their seats, from among the fifty to be
summoned by Biggy, the peremptory
CnalI6ngeS Will De eXefClSeu. VI IHeSe
the defense is entitled to ten and the
prosecution to five. So the whole twelve
may be told to stand aside. In this
event, it Is reckoned, at least two more
weeks will be consumed In getting d
jury to try the indicted political boss
on the five counts of extortion in which
he is accused Jointly with Mayor
schmitz of having "held up" the French
restauranters for large sums of money
on threat to take away their liquor
licenses.
The extortion cases disposed of, Ruet
faces trial on sixty-five grand jury in
dictments charging bribery in connec-
ton with the awarding Of public SER
vice franchises by the supervisors.
No meeting of the grand jury was
held today. At tomorrow's session II
is hoped to conclude the investigation
of Home and Pacific States telephone
matters. Five more indictments are
under consideration as a result of al
legged bribery by Home Telephone COM
pany officials and three more on a like
score against officials of the Pacific
States corporation. Slot machine, petty
grating, charged by the prosecution
against Mayor Schmitz and some of his
administration agents. is also scheduled
for further investigation tomorrow.