Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-10-11
MANACLED TO
CONVICTED SWINDLERS
Nabbed in Court Room Charged With Having Shot up Street
i'm Pursuit of Successful Fmfammers-Judge and Coun-
sci Furnish Features, Too, at Eventfu Trial.

| lawyer of Orange and a personal
friend of Fabbo's. had acted as his
counsel in the Orange police station
at the time Fabbo swore out a war
rant for the arrest of Palermo and
| Santorio on March 26 last, and acted
as such counsel until last Sunday,
when he informed Fabbo that he
Icould not represent him any longer,
as he had been retained by Palermo
and Santorio to aid In their defense.
A dash of humor was put into the
| hearing, unconsciously or otherwise,
| by Judge Martin himself that caused
a quiet smile to creep over the face
of almost everyone in the courtroom.
Palermo had testified that he had left
his home in Erie, Pa, the night be-
| fore the robbery, and had only
reached Newark the morning 1t oc-
Cured.
when did you leave Erie?" asked
First Assistant Prosecutor Wilbur A.
Mott.
"Eleven o'clock at night" was the
answer.
What time did you reach New
ark?" was the next question, and the
reply was: about o'clock In the
morning.
What road did you travel on?"
asked the prosecutor.
THE Erie" replied Palermo.
Judge Martin sat up straight in his
chair and took notice.
What is that you mean to tell u.s."
asked the judge. "You say you left
Erie at IL o'clock at night and
reached Newark at the next morn
ing, and you Travelled on the Erie?"
and the rising infection of wonder
and amaze in his tone had all the
courtroom guessing as to whether he
was taking sly shot at the poor old
Erie road or not.
If First Assistant Prosecutor Will
bur A. Mott and former First AS
sistant Prosecutor Frederick r. Lehl-
bach oppose each other in criminal
cases very often in Judge Martins
court the carpet covering the space In
front of the judges bench will be
worn to a FRAGILE in no time. The
pair opposed each other in two cases
this week, and it was a constant
walking match between the two all
the time the hearings were in
progress.
AS pair of "peripatetic lawyers"
Messrs. Mott and Lehlbach are evenly
matched. 1t is an even bet that the
two of them walked twenty miles on
the carpeted space. eight feet in
width by about thirty In length, in
front of Judge Martins bench during
the two days they were opposed to
each other this week.
Both the Supreme and the Circuit
Court rooms in the Court House for
the greater part of this week looked
like anneXes of the engineering de-
partments of the city and county. In
the Circuit Court the trial of the suit
of Hurd & Sutton against the Board
of Freeholders for architects fees was
on hearing for couple OF days, and
that room was Uttered with sets of
plans and books of the county.
In the Supreme Court room the at
torneys of the city of Newark and the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company were
wrestling with the problem of who
owns the property occupied in part
by the Market street station of the
"Pennsy," and that portion of that
room inside the rail not used by
counsel and jury was damned with
old maps record books, bue-prints
and other data needed in the case
AS matter of fact in this case
tnere was such a mass of document
tary evidence to go to the jury in the
way of maps, blueprints, etc, that
when the case was finally handed to
the jury for elaboration late yester-
Noy oitciioOil JuuBe nelson L. Dun
gan figured that 1t would be easier to
clear the large courtroom of all per-
sons other than the twelve men Of
the jury and allow them to use that
for their deliberations rather than at
tempt to move the mass of maps, etc.
to the small jury-room. on the mezza-
nine floor of the Court House.
When things were booming in the
investigation of the Roseville Trust
Company case last Tuesday Frank NJ
McDern1it, as counsel for the deposit
ors, was moving around among a
crowd of people interested in the bank
case and in cases on hearing before
the grand jury that thronged the cor
ridors on the second floor of the
Court House.
McDermit had a huge roll of
stage" yellow backs that looked for
all the world like the real $50 article
that your Uncle Sam stands back of
as coin of the realm. McDermit
would ostentatiously pull out a roll
of real money to count 1t or pay out
some of it and in so doing would
manage to crumple up one of the
stage" money bills, let it drop to the
floor apparently unnoticed and then
move away. In probably half a dozen
instances men were seen to walk to
their foot and then when 1t was
thought no one was looking reach
down and pick it up, shove it in their
pocket and beat 1t away in the
crowd.
And in the case of those who called
McDermit's attention to the fact that
he had dropped part of his roll" he
would hand the bill to them with the
famous McDermit smile wrinkling his
face and remark: You may keep it,
1t is just a little souvenir of the sort
of money they have in the RosevilIe
Trust Company that I am handing
out to my friends.
McDermit said he had more fun
with his roll of "phony" money than
he ever had with real money, land
/ have had some pretty good times
with real money, too" he continued.
You can't phase Tom McLelland
clerk of the criminal courts. In one
case this week Fred l.. Salmon, the
official stenographer of Judge Mar
tins court was called to the witness
stand to identity some testimony
taken at a previous hearing, and as
all the other court stenographers were
busy, Archie Wettach, stenographer
to the grand jury. was called on to
take down Salmon's testimony
The point was raised that Wettach,
not being a regular court stenog-
rapher, should be sworn. Never
had to administer an oath to court
stenographer in my life before" said
McLelland, half to himself, as he rose
to his feet, but he never hesitated and
| went ahead and administered an oath
| to Wettach that certainly bound him
| to well and truly take down and
transcribe etc - all that Salmon had