The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1909-08-31
TRIAL POSTPONED
AT CRITICAL TIME
Illness of Rankin Juror Stops
Case While Court Considers
important Point
Six More Ocean Shore Bonds,
Alleged to Have Been En-
bezzIed, Located

When Judge Coniey yesterday moor
was about to give a decision on an in
portant point in the Charles E. Rankin
case 1t developed that Philip Stearns
one of the jurors. was i'll and adjourn
ment vas taken until this morning
This afforded the court ana Attorney
Hiram w. Johnson, special prosecutor
a chance to conduct an informal argu-
ment on the point which the Judge said
he has already decided.
The court and attorneys are prone
70 be very tender with Juror Stearns
When John ]. Lynch, involved with
Rankin in the Ocean Shore embezzle-
ment and now under sentence tc
prison, was first On trial Adolph Hitler
one of the jurors, suddenly died, caus-
ing a mistrial
me point over which Judge Conley
and the lawyers argued yesterday was
this: After the prosecution had closed
its case in the morning Attorney Frank
Drew, representing Rankin. offered as
a witness l. E. Spencer. Spencer was
to testify that at the time of the al
legged conspiracy Lynch went to him
and negotiated for the sale of bonds
OF the Ocean Shore railroad company.
Drew's point was that such evidence
would show that Lynch was acting in
dependent OF the defendant, Rankin.
TESTIMONY Is OPPOSED
Hiram w. Johnson and Assistant Dis
trict Attorney James NJ Han1ey ap-
posed the testimony Of Spencer on the
ground that it would serve to impeach
that of Lynch, and that the defense had
laid no legal foundation for the i'm
parchment of Lynch on the point at
issue. They claimed that Lynch should
q 81 -
Spencer before Spencer could be called.
Drew replied that Spencer's testi-
mony was not to be used to impeach
Lynch, primarily, but was simply to
establish an Independent fact which
would go toward showing the proba-
bility or the improbability of the wit
ness statement.
the point. When court adjourned in
the afternoon Judge ConIey said that
he had decided that Spencer's testi-
mony might be admissible Then John
son and the court fought the fight over
again, Drew taking little interest in
the argument.
GRAFT CASES ARE CITED
During the argument both johnson
and Judge Conley drew illustrations
from the graft cases to uphold their
respective positions.
view evidence considered by the
prosecution to be of value was intro
duced yesterday morning Through the
testimony of Andrew d. Keyes, an Oak
land cigar dealer, and Attorney Ryker
of Oakland six of the IL Ocean Shore
bonds not heretofore accounted for
were located. Keyes said that in Oc-
tober. 1908, he bought two of the
bonds from Sweet & Bacon, the brolx-
ers heretofore mentioned in the case,
and that in November of the same year
he got four other bonds as security on
a loan made to Sweet & Bacon. The
charge against Lynch and Rankin in
volved the embezzlement OF 40 bonds
Up to yesterday only 2S OF them had
been located. There are still unac-
counted for.
Rankin was on the stand yesterday
morning and told the story in his own
defense, along the lines of the story
he told at the former trial when the
jury disagreed.
A clerk named Auerbach, in the brolx-
erage office of Chester B. Ellis & Co,
testified that Rankin had sought to
buy Ocean Shore bonds of that firm