The San Francisco call., 1908-04-30
|RUEF FACES FIRST
WITNESS IN TRIAL
Objections of Defense and Plea
for Change of Venue Are
Swept Aside
Heney Outlines Details of Park
side Bribery Case Against
SeIf-Confessed Boodler

The Ruef trial was started fairly on
its way yesterday amid a whirlwind
of objections and counter objections
Francis ]. Heney made his opening
statement TO the jury, outlining the
case against the former boss. John
E. Behan. clerk of the board of super
visors, was the first witness called,
but the constant objections of Attorney
Henry Ach blocked progress to such a
de gree that his testimony was not COM
pleted. 1t required but a short. time
to dispose of Ruefs motion for a
change of venue, and with the denial
of this plea nothing remained be-
tween the disgraced attorney and
actual trial The specific charge on
which Ruef is being tried is an. agree
ment to bribe former Supervisor Jen-
n1ngs Philips for voting for a fran
chise for the Parkside transit com
pany.
with the exception of a few unim-
portant ones, every question was fol-
lowed by lengthy objection. Attorney
Henry Ach was 10th TO admit any
thing. and it required almost two hours
for it to be legally known that San
Francisco had been visited by a dis
astrous fire In which the records of the
board of supervisors were burned.
CHANGE OF VENUE DENIED
The morning session opened with an
argument ON. the motion flor a change
OF venue. filed by the defense. In re-
sponse to the declarations of Ruef to
the effect that public opinion was
against him in this community TO such
an extent that he could not be I'M
partially tried. Francis. J. Heney filed
210 affidavits by citizenssin all sections
of the city to the contrary. In his
own affidavit Heney said that Ruef
when asking for his liberty in the days
when he was aiding the prosecution,
had said that the prosecution would
make themselves popular by such a
step. Judge Dooling deniedithe motion.
Heney's opening speech to the jury
was but brief recital of the. facts. in
the Parkside franchise matter, such as
has been told repeatedly. He out
lined Ruef's unique position as political
boss, the attempts of the Parkside
transit company to obtain the fran
chise without his help and the final
employment of Ruef as attorney"
STATEMENT BY HENEY
AFTER the fire." said Heney, ."Ruef,
like everybody else, wanted little
cash and the $4,000 which was in the
hands of Harry Umbsen and Douglas
Watson appealed to him. The checks
Were changed into 80 $1,000 bills and
were put. in an envelope by yelling
ton Gregg and taken a Gus Umbsen's
office. where they wery put in q safe.
After the. fire they werS taken cut and
deposited with the Union trust COM
pany.t On May %. 1906, Tom Hender-
son went to. the Union trust company
and drew $4,000 of the money This
was delivered to Ruef In part payment
of the transaction
Along about October the company
decided to go ahead with it's plans, but
this time asked for franchise over
Nineteenth avenue, which is boule-
ward Ruef had meeting with Umb-
sen and agreed to put the matter
through for $4,000 Umbsen thought
he had but $4,000 more to pay, having
paid $3.50 already. Forget it, SAID
Ruef. this means $4,000 more
This was agreed to and Ruef told
Gallagher to instruct the supervisors
to vote for the ordinance, their price
being $1,000 each. We expect to prove
that this promise. was kept, and on this
we rely
Owing to Ach's numerous objections
Behan, the first witness, did not make
much headway in his testimony. His
was purely technical evidence, dealing
with passage Of the ordinance and the
records Of his Office.