Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-24
ACCUSES THREE
JURORS OF BIAS
IN FRAUD CASE
RELATIVE OF THE DEFENDANT
MAKES SERIOUS CHARGE
MEN CRITICIZED GIVE LIE TO
THEIR INFORMANT
Little Progress Made at Trial of Four
Persons Said to Have Perpetrated
Extensive Land SwIndles In
Imperial Valley

The four men charged with extern
sive land frauds in the Imperial valley
made a poor start yesterday at the
opening of their trial in the court room
of United States District Judge Olin
Wellborn, through the zeal of rela-
tive of one of the Chaplin brothers,
who is among the accused.
This mans name Is Charles u. CreeI
and he created sensation after the
dinner hour by charging the express
sion of bias on the part of three men
summoned to answer as to their quail
ifications as jurorsA
The men he accused were Wilbur o.
Dow, formerly a county official; Fred
w. Beau de Fart and Thomas HaVer-
ty, a we'll known plumber. The men
practically gave Creel the lie in open
court.
At the morning session little prog
ress was made in the case-the task
of securing a jury proceeding slowly.
| The usual rule of taking up the ex-
animation of each juror and conclud-
ing 1t, and then swearing the juror, is
not being followed In this instance,
the plan of filling the jury box and re-
serving the formality of swearing the
men in to the last being employed
| instead.
Among others Thomas Haverty was
excused in the morning session, but
both Mr.. Beau de Fart and Mr.. Dow
were passed for cause and allowed to
remain in the box when the court ad-
| journed for the noon recess.
When court reopened at o'clock,
Attorney LeCompte Davis asked that
the men in the venire be excused from
the room, and when they were gone
he stated that during the noon hour
man had repeated to the attorneys
conversation that had taken place be-
tween Dow, Haverty and Beau de
| Fart, in which one or all of them had
expressed themselves as friendly to the
prosecution and to tho court, and as
willing to assert 1t would not take
more than two minutes to bring in q
verdict If they were finally placed on
the jury.
Accuscr Brought Into Court
Judge Wellborn asked Davis to bring
the man making this statement into
| the court room, and Creel was pro-
duced The first question asked by
United States District Attorney Nc
Cormick took the wind out of the sails
of the volunteer.
"You are relative OF one of the
defendants, are you not" he said.
| Creel floundered. "Yes," he said at
length.
your daughter married Bert Chap
lin, son of F. N. Chaplin, believer"
The witness admitted the soft i'm
peachment.
Creel was then asked to repeat his
statement as made to attorneys for the
defense and did so. A grilllng cross
examination followed, from which
Creel came off indifferently we'll. All
he could remember positively was that
the three men had said they knew Os-
car Paul Mccormick and the court.
Messrs. Beau de Fart and Dow flatly
contradicted the man and that in no
uncertain terms. They admitted they
! had joked among themselves about the
possibility of being excused from long
attendance on an intricate and tire
some trial, but of anything else they
denied any guilt. They were carefully
examined, but the attorneys for the de-
fense were unable to gain any salts
faction, and Attorney Davis finally
apologized to the two men for the
questioning, saying he had been in
! formed of the story and desired to
get at the truth.
Save for this one incident there was
nothing of interest in the case yester-
day. The task of securing a jury will
probably be completed today. There
are a score Of witnesses in attend
ance on the court from Imperial valley
and the case of the prosecution, at
least, will not be difficult to lay be-
fore the court. In defense of the men,
F. N. and David Chaplin, Paul Nc
Pherrin and Arthur Kemper, who are
accused, there are engaged Attorneys
Davis, E. A. Meserve, Oscar Trippet,
7. H. Valentine, formerly United
states district attorney; ]. N. Eshel-
man, Shirley Ward and Roy Nc
Pherrin.