Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1912-06-20
GEBHARDT EXONERATED.
Says at Least One of His Enemie,
Should be Disbarred.
Denies Ever Having Attempted to In,
fluence a Jury -Reviews the Case.


fluence a Jury Reviews the Case.
State Senator William C. Gebhardt,
Eof Hunterdon County, issued state
ment yesterday concerning the action
of the Supreme Court in refusing to
issueNa rule to show cause why he
should not be disbarred, thus exoner-
Eating him from the charge of tam
pering with a jury in his home coun-
ty. The Senator takes the opportun-
ity to pay his respects to his enc
mics. He thinks that the tables
should be turned and that at least one
of the men back of the charges
against him should himself be dis
barred Senator Gebhardts state
ment follows
The Supreme Court has refused a
rule to show cause why | should not
be disbarred This is entirely out of
the ordinary. The usual practice when
an application is made for ri.le to
show cause why on attorney of this
State should not be disbarred IS for
the Court to grant such rule and then
it becomes. a matter of record Be-
cause of the suspicious circumstances
surrounding the application in my
| case, and because of the eyiden. AMI
mus back Of II. the court refused to
graft the rule without first looking IN
10 the facts.
Il have refrained from making any
complete public statement cone srniD;s
the motion made about four months
ago. in the Supreme Court of this
State, for my d;sbarment, because I
had full confidence IN the Supreme
Court and never fos moment had the
slightest doubt of my complete vindi-
cation in the end 1t has been at times
rather hard to bear, because | deemed
it the proper and dignified thing to
do to calmly wait until the Supreme
Court had decided in the matter. Now
that that Court has by its decis on
completely exonerated me from all
wrongdoing, will make the following
/ statement
This motion was made l.y Robert
K Large, ex-Prosecutor of Hunterd IN
County, backed by pol teal and per
sonal enemies of mine, and other in
terests, and it never had any founda-
tion, in truth. George K. Large was
indicted by the September Grand Jury
of Hunterdon County for violation of
the election laws, and this was the
| immediate cause of his attempting this
proceeding. OF course, he blamed me
for his Indictment The truth is that
l had nothing whatever to do with
his indictment and was not in the
| slightest degree responsible for it.
Since this motion was made, in
February last, my enemies have had
about four months, during which time
they have raked my whole profess
ional, financial and political record as
with fine-tooth comb and have not
been able to find a thing of any kind
whatsoever on which to succeed in
their application, for the reason that
| have never done a single act in my
professional, financial or political car
eer that was deserving of criticism,
nor have | nor has anybody for me,
ever, in any way whatever, attempted
| to- influence the selection of jurors, nor
have | nor has anybody for me, with
my knowledge or consent or approval,
ever attempted in any way to influence
any jury in any case in which | have
been interested as attorney On the
contrary, am the one person in Hun
| terdon County who took up the matter
of jury fixing in that county eight
years ago, when it was a very common
practice in that county, and employed
the detectives of the Mooney & Bo1and
Detective Agency, of New York City,
and l have the receipted bills of that
company and the checks which | sent
to that agency in payment for the>ser-
vices of their detectives in stopping
| jury fixing in Hunterdon County, and
| there has never been any trouble of
that kind in that county since. Instead
of having shown any improper act on
my part, the evidence shows clearly
that at least one of the persons back
of this prosecution should have been
disbarred instead of myself However
| am very glad indeed to be able to
truthfully say that not one of my
friends, either in my own county or
throughout the State, believed at any
time that there was any foundation
whatever for the action that was
brought against me.