Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-11-24
KUEHNLE MUST co
TO PRISON, COURT
OF errors DECIDES
Former Republican Leader of
Atlantic Will Serve Year and
Pay $500 Fine.
CONVICTION CONFIRMED
AFTER BITTER BATTLE
Through Dummy He Awarded
City Contract to His Own
Paving Company.

TRENTON, Nov. 24.-The Court of
Errors and Appeals today affirmed
the conviction of Commodore Louis
Kuehnle. of Atlantic City. for being
financially interested in the awarding
of contract to a company in which
he was director while a member of
the Board of Water Commissioners of
Atlantic City. The former boss of
Atlantic county was sentenced to one
year in the State prison and a fine of
5000.
An employee of the United Paving
Company named Lockwood entered
into a contract with the city for the
construction of $5O0,000 timber
water main. Later it was found that
Lockwood turned the contract over
to the United Paving Company In
which Kuehnle was a stockholder,
director and officer. Lockwood, 1t
was alleged, was used as q dummy
to secure the contract for the
Kuehnle Company.
Long Legal Battle.
Kuehnle was sentenced in July, 1911,
but the case was carried from one
court to another on the plea that the
cdsor-drawn jury which indicted him
was unconstitutional. At the time
" fOOQiOW w ilSOll was 1ONCl ilOA t1ihd
he sent Attorney General Edmund
Wilson to Atlantic City to prosecute
the case. Supreme Court } 'tice
kalisch superseded the county ju-se
in the trial and the sheriff was ig
nored in the selection of the grand
jury. When O conviction was had
Kuehnle's lawyers declared that their
client had been prosecuted and was
victim of the Governors desire to
clean up Atlantic City. and have
thus far succeeded in keeping him
from serving his sentence.
Following his conviction Kuehnle
Immediately appealed to the Supreme
Court on the ground that the elisor
jury was unconstitutional The Su-
preme Court, however, affirmed the
conviction below.
Next he carried the case to the
Court of Errors and Appeals and the
vote today to sustain the conviction
was to l, Justice Minturn voting
for an reversal of the judgment be-
low.
An appeal may be taken to the
United States Supreme Court. There
IS a feeling here, however, that this
will not avail the former leader any
thing, but will merely act as a stay
of the carrying out of the nentence,
in view of the decision of the United
+ States Supreme Court three weeki
4 ago in the similar case of John Zeller,
of Hudson county, who was convicted
by an elisor- -drawn jury.
Justice swayze's Opinion.
The syllabus of the opinion of JUS
tice Swayze is as follows: "The grand
jury sworn at the opening of the
Court of oyer and Terminer was dis
charged by the court and a special
session convened on motion of the
attorney general. Upon his statement
of a prima facie case of a criminal
violation of law by the sheriff, sup
ported by affidavits, the court ordered
q venire of elisors without hearing the
sheriff or making public the affidavits,
held that the judges discretion was
properly exercised.
'ITrder section 32 of the crimes act,
which makes 1t criminal for certain
public officers to be directly or in
directly concerned in any agreement
or contract for public Improvement,
1t is necessary that the concern must
be corrupt An averment in the in
eictment that the concern of the de-
fendant was, direct, is immaterial and
may be stricken out as surplusage.
Whether in an indictment for a statu-
tory offense 1t is necessary to charge
and prove criminal intent, is a
question of statutory construction
Concerns as stockholders in a
corporation that makes a contract
for public Improvement may suffice
to render public officers amenable to
section 80 of the crimes act.'