Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1913-12-12
A. G. RUSSELL
 IS SENTENCED Former City Collector Takes Case to Supreme Court and Others Postponed
DENIED NEW TRIAL
Judge Grace Saves County Money by Continuing Other Gases Bond
 is Increased.

A. G. Russell, former city collector who was convicted of cmbezzlement in the Je'scrson circuit court on No- vember i*, it being charged that he inappropriate funds of thirteen Improvement districts in this city, aggrega,inP $13,000, was Thursday sentenced to one year in the state prison and ordered to pay a $500 fine by Judge A. R. Grace. The motion for a new trial was overuled and his attorneys, A. II. Rowell and E. J. ,kerwin, prayed an appeal to the Supreme Court. They were allowed ten days a which to file bill of exceptions RusselIs bond was in- creased $a,0oO, in addition to a $5,oOO bond which was made at the time of his arrest.
 Judge Grace granted the request of defendants 5 attorneys for continu- ance of the other twelve cases against him, each charging embezzlement. In doing this Judge Grace said that ,o continue ,he other cases pending a decision of the first case in the su- preme co;:rt, which includes prac- tically the same facts as the others, would he saving the county from $3,000 to $o,000. In the event he should be reversed by the higher court it would mean the retrial of all the tases. with a double expense had they all been disposed of now :. To avoid snmmoning juors and incur ring other expense in each of the twelve cases, Judge Grace granted the motion for continuance. Judge Grace has not been reversed by the Supreme Court in a criminal case in more than six years.
 When the jurors convicted Russell they all signed petition, before leaving the jury room, asking Cover nor Hays to pardon him of the orfn year sentence, but to let the $500 fire stand This action was taken by the jury because Russell had paid back all of the money to the various improvement districts, amounting to $13,O0O. Ten thousand dollars of that amount was repaid by bonding com 1 pany.
 k. In overuing the motion for V new trial, Judge Grace said:
 "The Ac- of 1909 provides that if any collector or treasurer of an i'm provement district shall make use of for his nsrsonal benefit any of the funds tha. are in his hands as such l collector, he shall be guilty of a felony anu shall be punished accord ingly If no such Act had ever been I passed, The rules which govern the 1 great mass of business transactions rules of strict integrity-would re- quire just exactly that kind of con- duct; that is, that the man who is put in position of trust and en- trusted by his fellow citizens with the custody of their money should not take it and use if for his own purposes. You don't need the statutes to make that morally and legally a crime. The duty of the trustee is simply to safely keep all money plac- el in his hands, collected by him, and pay it out on legal orders and war rants from the proper authorities in the district; he is merely reposi- tory: 1t ia not his fund and he has no property in it, no right in 1t, no right to use it or touch it or handle it in any way. He is not like a bank When you give your money to bank by the custom of the banking busl- ness it is understood that the bank takes the money and uses it in it's business, but the bank is supposed to be solvent and responsible, while the trustee and collector of an improve ment district is very different per son. He is entrusted with specific trust and his only duty is to hold il subject to the orders of the commlss, sioners, and to pay it out upon proper warrants. The moment he puts ms fingers on it for his own purposes he has violated the trust which If neposed in him. The Act of 1909 wal intended to cover and prevent jus that kind of conduct. The loseness with which people were disposed te