The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-02-15
SERIOUS CHARGES
 AGAINST CAzALAS State Examiner Reports on His
 Investigation. DEPUTIES OVER-ACTIVE
DEPUTIES OVER-ACTIVE
Charge Iutintated Against Former Mobile SheriR-Padding of
 Feed Bills Averred.


 In lengthy report to Gov. B. B. Conner made today, State Examiner of Accounts John Purifoy finds much to criticize in the administration of the office of sheriff of Mobile county by Frank Cazalas, who was impeached in trial before the su- ness by his deputies is lntmated. and he Is charged with collecting fees for feeding prisoners who paid their own board on the outside.
 It is also charged that he did poor bookkeeping in>sthat he has no adequate record of cases from other counties, also with collecting jail feed bills on vagrancy prisoners when the code does not make it jail offense. Here are some of the allegations
 | That from the time he went into office June 1, 1907, to his retirement, June 4, 1909, he received from the state for feed ing prisoners s2O 216.10, or an average of $s37.6 65 per month.
 | That of |, $50 commitments to jail only about S5 per cent involve moral turpitude.
 That he received sS5. 40 for the feeding of | 0. '. in; also that he received s157.50 for per sons who had their meals sent in and were in the jail under hard labor sen tence the feed bills in the last instance being chargeable to the contractors. l That it was the practice under him to have every person arrested sent to jail and have the feed bills charged up.
 
 4soO were originated by employees of the office.
 | That of 444S vagrancy cases committed, 26e9 were checked over on the court docket, with only 261a per cent convic- tions.
 That the state paid for discharged prisoners of the vagrancy class the sum of $l,567.50. Also that there were feed bills of $l355.4o for jail sentence in va grancy cases when the code does not contemplate jail sentence for vagrancy. That of PIP prosecutions for adultery, there were only convictions. | II. r. Hirshfeld, who acted as sheriff for 22 days. pays back s750 for feed bills for c. c. Dickens, and for Dickens and others
  Drago, the present sheriff. pays back s24.90 P. B. Dorian, tax collector, is due on a few minor errors s65. 3S, which he paid at once, and F. D. Lauderine, tax assessor. gets a clear bill
 The reports in full follow, are addressed to Gov. B. B. Conner and signed by Judge John Prrfoy. examiner: On Frank CazaIas. | Under instructions from your office. have examined the books accounts and vouchers of Frank Cazalas, Sr, as sher- | if of Mobile county, beginning with June 1, 1907, the date to which examina- tion had been previously made, and cov- ering the period 10 June f. 19G9 the date on which his official connection with the office terminated. His feed bills on file in the auditors office show he has re- ceived $20, 206.10, an average of $837.65 per month for this service. They show that Il, ,6S0 commitments to jail were made small percentage of this number were commitments under jail and hard labor sentences 1 am safe in saying that at I least S5 or 90 per cent of such commit ments were made under charges invoIy- | ing no moral turpitude, but were simply minor statutory offensesk chiefly va grancy, Sunday gaming, gaming in a public place, unlawfully riding trains abusive language and similar offenses. | Section 7194, of the code, provides that 'it is the duty of the sheriff, or the | jailor, under his direction, to file in regu- 1 lar order, and safely preserve the process | or order by which any prisoner is com mitted to jail or discharged therefrom or an attested copy of such process or or der" In most cases the sheriff held reg ularly issued commitments for prisoners he is shown to have collected bills for feeding while in jail.
 I found the names of number of pris- onsrs on his feed bills who had been out of jail on bond and were returned and held on certified copies of the original bond. On these copies there are no in- dorsements or other evidence attached to show when such prisoners were ar rested and returned to the custody of the sheriff or any reason why such ar rest was made.
 | In cases where prisoners were arrested on eapiases based on indictments found by the grand juries of the city court of Mobile county the process had been re- turned to the court. the sheriff not re- | taining copy
 | There were the names of 53 prisoners on | his feed bills. shown by such bills to have been arrested and committed on pro- | cess issued by the courts of other coun- | ties in the state, or were being held for safekeeping For these he had collected | s79. 80 from the treasury. for feeding while | in jail. He presented no original process or copies, as provided by law, to show his authority for such charges. | For the discharge of prisoners from jail he presented no orders. or attested copies of such. In order to determine the correctness of these discharges it was | @1 2e,,lt tl,a which makes the work of examining his accounts one of great magnitude. With but few exceptions. the time for which Sheriff Cazalas had collected for feeding each prisoner agreed with the court records. I noted in my investiga- ton of the sheriffs record several errors against the sheriff, and several against the state. These being balanced showed the sheriff due the state s99.S0, which sum he promptly paid into the state treasury. The sources of error, I noted, that had been against the state were overcharges in few cases. charges for feeding per sons committed under hard labor sen tences, and charges for feeding prisoners -ho were not fed by the sheriff. The overcharges and charges for feeding such as were held under sentence for hard labor were readily admitted and adjusted. All to Jail.
 This investigation shows it was the practice of the sherin's office practically to require every person arrested to be taken to tho jail and if bond was made 1t was executed, either in the jail office situated In the jail enclosure, or in the sherin's office, which adjons the jail In either case, though the prisoner may not have been supplied with food, the sheriff collected from the treasury for feeding him. My attention was called to this by seeing the names of prisoners on the