The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1911-03-23
CITY CLERK MAN JAILED FOR FORGER
Man Whom Mayor
Called Guilty, Arrested
Bert Campbell Confesses That He Did Some Crooked
Warrant Work

Bert Campbell, the man charged
by Mayor Fawcett with doing
crooked work In the city clerks
office to save l.. w. Roys from re-
call, is in the city jail, a self-con-
fessed forger and embezzler.
Campbell went out of office Mon
day when City Clerk Cushman was
discharged by the city commission.
Mayor Fawcett for some time
has been watching Campbell. He
was the friend of Commissioner
Roys and owed his job in the
clerks office to the latter, and the
mayor had reports for some time
that Campbell was doing crooked
work to help Roys. Campbell was
also close in touch with the Royal
Arch and with the Sandberg
forces, and the mayor says Camp
bell has been harboring in one of
Sandberg's rooms in the Kentucky
house.
When the mayor became con-
vinced of the crookedness of
Campbell he called in Cushman
and told him. Cushman kept him
on, however, and refused to dis
miss him and SO both were
bounced Monday.
Last night Campbell was ar
rested at the instance of Chief
Mallory charged with forgery of
city warrants and collection of the
face of the warrants through sa-
looms.
w. w. Keys and G. ]. Lang
ford presented the first evidence
of this form of crookedness
against Campbell.
Cashed Warrants.
Mr.. Keys said this morning: 81
found my warrant for pay as an
election judge had been cashed
when I came for 1t. l reported
the matter to the mayor, and the
mayor called up Chief Malony
and we began sitting the matter
down. We found that Campbell
had cashed in over 80 warrants at
the Congress saloon"
Langford also reported to the
mayor, and the mayor put the case
in the hands of Chief Malony.
Many of the warrants Campbell
had cashed were for witness fees.
They were mostly for a couple of
dollars.
The evidence was presented to
ex-Clerk Cushman yesterday, and
after he had been through the
city books himself he saw that
Campbell had been crooked as
charged by the mayor and that he
had been deceived by him. He
signed the warrants for his arrest
and gave checks to the city to
cover the shortage caused by his
keeping Campbell in office.
Campbell when arrested confess
ed to the fact that he had forged
the names of the rightful owners
of the warrants and had cashed
them at the Congress saloon.
He evidently heard yesterday
that his actions were being fur
ther looked into, and he went to
Mr.. Keyes and tried to pay him
back the IS he had collected on
his warrant to hush the matter up.
Keyes refused to be a party to any
deal to save him.
Campbell was held under $1,000
bail and at noon today he was still
in Jail unable to secure bail.
Roys' Friend.
The exposure of this rottenness
in the clerks Office by the man
who was charged with tampering
with the recall petitions and doc
toring them so as to save his
friend l.. w. Roys from recall
puts the campaign of the commits
sioner of public safety in rather a
defensive position.
Campbell was known about the
city hall as the especial repre-
sentative of Roys, and his personal
crookedness In forging and col
lecting city warrants to maintain
his fast pace In life is taken gem
orally as practically conclusive
circumstantial evidence that he
also did the crooked work on the
recall to save Roys..
Campbell has been active in the
campaign since being bounced
from office and was fighting for
Seymour all day Tuesday and
yesterday. The night of the anti
treat election he was at Royal
Arcn headquarters helping to
receive returns and tabulating
them as they came in.
His defalcation he says will not
amount to over $500. Whether
that will cover it or not is a ques-
tion. He says he will pay it back,
but 1t is likely he will be Irose-