The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-06-01
TOOK BRIBES ON FAKE DEAL
HOW DEFECTIVE BURNS MEN CAUGHT COUNCILMEN IN AT
 LANTIO CITY.
ONE REFUSED TO CONFESS
Dougherty, Now on Trial, Was the Only One Who WouIdn't Re-
 turn the Money.

Atlantic City, N. J., June 1-City Councilman Harry F. Dougherty, ar rested on a charge of having accepted bribe of $500 in return for his vote in councils for the passage of an ordinance providing for concrete boardwalk along the beach front de- signed to cost million dollars or more, has through his lawyer pleaded not guilty and is held in 5000 bail for the grand jury.
 William F. Wahl, a citizen, who made the complaint against Dough- erty. He said he obtained the infor- nation on which he based his com plaint from William J. Burns, the de- tective.
 MT. Burns. on the stand. related that he was summoned here to in- vestigate alleged corrupt acts and dishonesty in civil matters. He be- gan his investigation, he said, in April, 1911. and continued it until August. when evolved "a fake" board walk scheme to catch certain council men and city officials He summoned him pass as MT. Harris" a New York contractor, anxious to get con tract to build a new board walk of concrete. Harris became familiar with councilmen, offered several of them $6,00O each to pass the ordin- ance, providing for the board walk, and paid $500 apiece on account. Later, Burns related these councilmen were informed of the trap into which they had fallen. According to his account, all but one of them confessed and returned the bribe money. Dougherty refused to give back the money or to confess and he was arrested.
 Cvr,i1ov Rurna nnorQ for fasfjffod to the installation of a telegraph in the hotel of William Mali, one of the councilmen, who confessed. The in strument, he said, was placed on the window sill of a room hidden behind a curtain, with the wires leading to a room above where two stenograph- CTS took down the interview between himself and the councilmen, at which the payment of the bribe money was arranged Smiley said he paid Dough- erty the $500 in ten 50 dollar bills.
 Mali testified that he did not see the deal was clinched. Councilman Lane, another man whose confession is in Burns hands, testified he could not remember seeing Dougherty at Mails hotel.
 Attorney-General Wilson, who has figured as prosecutor in the many election frauds and graft trials that have taken place here, was at the hearing, and assisted counsel for the citizen who made the charge against Dougherty.
 Councilman Samuel Phoebus, for mer owner of a big hotel, and the first man who is said to have broken down under the questioning of Burns, was in Burns room at a hotel today, Phoebus talked freely about the case in which he is involved.
 ''I feel better than I have felt for months,'' he declared. 1T am thankful I have got this thing off my chest. I have admitted everything without any promise from Burns. and I am willing to stand for anything that I get. only did what practically everybody else in council did at one time or an other and I can honestly say that I never fully realized the enormity of the offense."
 Asked to confirm the reports con corning the ''jobs' in which other city officials are said to have been caught, Phoebus eaid he knew only of the garbage plant and the sewer
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