The sun., 1908-06-13
NEWTRIALAFTERTHREEYEGRS
LANING, NOW IN SING SING, TO
GET A CHANGE FOR FREEDOM.
Case OF Man VINO while I'm sanitarium
Opened q Brokerage Account with
Forged Check-Held Insane While
Awaiting Trial, but Declared Cured.

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Forged Check-Held Insane While
Awaiting Trial. but Declared Cured.
A man who has been for three years in
Sing Sing prison is to be taken from there
presently and sent back to the Dutohess
county jail to await a new trial under
decision OF the Appellate Division handed
down in Brooklyn yesterday as result Of
action taken in the prisoners behalf by the
Legal Aid Society of this city through
Merrill E. Gates, Jr. its attorney.
The prisoner is Howard Laning, who
forged check upon the Fifth Avenue
Bank while he was an inmate Of a sanitarium,
opened a brokerage account on the strength
of it. bought and sold stock through the
brokers and cashed in some $240 on the
brokers' check. to which he forged the in
dorsement Of non-exsistent person in
whose name he had opened the account.
Tho story, briefly told sounds almost
romantic in its complications, and on its
legal side it has held the careful interest of
the Justices of the Appellate Division pre-
sided over by Justice jerks.
Laning had been manager Of brokers'
office in Poughkeepsie. He had had trouble
with his wife. He sought to take his children
from her. He was habitual user of chloral.
cocaine, morpha and other drugs. One
prescription containing cocaine which he
frequently had refilled by druggists in
Poughkeepse and Kingston N. Y. he was
in the habit Of partaking of twenty times
day. His addiction to the drugs had con-
tinued over several years.
About March 10, 1905, while an inmate of
DR.. Sahler sanitarillm at Kingston Laning
forged the signature of Mrs. Ramona Pol
hemus, who occupied room at the same
s1nitarium. to check on the Fifth Avenue
Bank for s24O.5O drawn in the name of C.
Taylor. The same day Laning took the
check to the Poughkeepsie branch office of
Boody, Mcclellan & Co. of New York and
told the manager that Taylor was a friend
of his, a travelling man, who wanted to do
little trading and that he. Laning, had
suggested that Taylor give his business to
that firm. Taylor, he sqid, wanted to begin
trading as soon as the account was good and
was told that the account would be opened
as soon as the check was paid in New York
Three or four days later Manager butcher
Of the Poughkeepsie Office of Boody, McClel-
Ian & Co. was called on the telephone from
Kingston by "A man representing himself
as c. Taylor, who finding that the account
was good, ordered the purchase of twenty
shares of Chicago and Great Western stock
on margin. Later in the same day the
same man ordered the stock sold at the
market and check for the proceeds sent
to him at the Eagle Hotel, Kingston. This
was done.
This check drawn by Boody, Mcclellan
4 Co. TO the order of c. Taylor, was taken
later by Laning TO an attorney who had
done some business for him and was cashed
or discounted, the attorney keeping out
500 which Laning owed him for legal SER
vices.
Mrs. Polhemus in the meantime was
notified by the Fifth Avenue Bank that
her account was overdrawn and when
she informed the bank in reply that her
memoranda showed balance in her favor
the bank put detectives on the track Of
the S240 check and they soon ran down
Laning They took him to n local bank
where they closeted him with the cashier,
Attorney Rose, who had discounted the
check for him; police officer and Dr.
Sahler. Laning confessed the whole game.
His confession was written and sworn to
and he was locked up in Poughkeepsie.
While he was in Jail his attorney applied
for a court order for his examination as
to sanity and he was declared by COM
mission OF experts to be insane. In the
meantime he was indicted On the deci-
sion Of the commission he was sent to
Matteawan on April l3. 1905. On May IS
of the same year he was discharged from
Alatteawan az cured and was taken back
to the county Jail, where he remained
until tried and convicted on June 20 fol-
lowing, and was sentenced to five years and
eight months in Sing Sing prison.
While in Sing Sing, acting as his own
attorney, although he is not an attorney,
he prepared and secured an order of the
court permitting him to have a copy Of
the minutes OF his trial, to see if he could
not find some ground on which to secure
an appeal. 1t is said that he had In this
work the assistance Of Albert c. Patrick.
fellow prisoner. laning concluded that his
trial and conviction were faulty in that
he was insane at the time OF the forgery
and he wrote to the Legal Aid Society to
ask the society to take up his case.
Mr.. Gates sent one of his assistants to
Sing Sing and the attorney came away
favoraby impressed with Laning's case.
The society took the matter up and the
was that Laning having declared himself
insane it was incumbent upon the pros
ecuting attorney of Dutchess county at
his trial to prove by preponderanoe of
evidence not only the crime charged but
the sanity of the defendant at the time
sisted by District Attorney John +. Mack
of Dutchess county, who held that tho
trial was properly conducted, that the
question of the defendants sanity went
to the jury. and that the defendant had
only slammed insanity for the purposes
of the trial
On Tuesday last the appeal was argued
in Brooklyn, Laning being brought down
from prison by a State detective. After
argument by counsel on both sides the
Court called upon the derendant-appellant
to speak for himself. He addressed the
Court for fifteen minutes and seemed to-
interest the justices greatly. Yesterday
the Court handed down its decision order
ing new trial and Mr.. Gates at once tele-
graphed IAaning and wrote TO District At
torney Mack asking him how soon Lanng
would be taken back to the county jail
of Duchess and about what time the Dis
trct Attorney thought the new trial could
come. In some cases of this sort there
is no second trial. the authorities moving
to quash the indictment