Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1915-05-24
GUARDS ON TRIAL
FOR MURDERS IN
ROOSEVELT RIOT
First Ten Deputies Defend Their
Action for Shooting Score
of Strikers.
is MORE ARE WAITING
TO PLEAD THEIR CASES
400 Witnesses and Array of Le-
gal Talent in MiddIesex
County Court.
Special to the Evening star.

special 10 tne Evening star,
NEW BRUNSWICK, May "a
With over 400 witnesses subpoenaed
to testify. a panel Of 100 jurors drawn
from the neighboring county of Mer-
Ger, and an array of legal talent on
both sides, the trial of the twenty
five deputies indicted for the killing
of the two Roosevelt strikers and
the wounding of score last Janu-
ary. began here today before Su-
preme Court Justice James j. Ber-
gen.
The defendants, who We're hired by
Sheriff Houghton through the
O'Brien Detective Agency in New
ark, to guard the Williams
& Clark plant of the American
Agricultural and Chemical Company,
were Indicted by the MiddleseN
county grand jury, for murder in the
first degree. and have been anguish
ing in the county jail, having been
refused bail owing to the nature of
the charges against them.
From a panel of 100 men the jury
was drawn in little more than half an
hour. The defense was given five
collective challenges, and Justice
Bergen refused to allow the usual
questions concerning the jury candi-
dates opinion about capital punish
ment. nor would he allow any inter
rogation about whether they were
members of labor unions or whether
their business interests would bias
them in passing judgment on the
deputies.
The following jury was drawn:
Charles Hauer. foreman; Lewis Fur
man. AlFrre Wooley. William H. Hol-
combe.} bert II. Bradshaw, John
Green, fohn F. Hartmann, Charles
BlaughtY Joseph A. Nicholson. George
Koenig, Thomas Stelle Elwell S.
Clugston.
The States highest legal authority,
Attorney General John Wescott; one
Of his assistants. Josiah Stryker,
together with Prosecutor w. Edwin
Florence and Assistant Prosecutor
Coan, of Middlesex county, will en-
deaVor TO prove the twenty five
deputies guilty of firing the shots
that sent Alesandro Desidiro and
Carman Patty, the strike victims, to
their deaths.
Robert McCarter, of Newark, and
former Prosecutor Joseph l.. Striok-
er, of MiddleseX county, will seek to
establish the innocence Of the de-
PENDANTS.
Trial May Last Two Weeks.
1t is anticipated that the trial will
last two weeks at least, and that it
will be characterized by a determined
legal battle. The prosecution will
endeavor to prove, in the effort to
have the deputies convicted, that
they We're not residents of this State.
as is required, and that they had
previous experience as armed guards
in strike disturbances. The defend
ants when arrested claimed to be
bona fide citizens of New Jersey.
The defense viii probably try to
prove that the strikers, and not the
deputies, We're guilty of law breaking
in commencing the attack which pe-
suited i'm the two deaths and injuries
guards were acting in self defense
The indicted men will not be tried
collectively. Ten were brought before
the court today and their cases will
be disposed of before the next lot are
placed on trial. OF the over 400 wit
nesses summoned to tell what they
know concerning the fatal shooting
about half are strikers themselves,
and the remainder are citizens of the
borough of Roosevelt
History of the Case.
The crime for which the deputies
were arraigned today resulted from
rioting on the morning of Tuesday,
January 10 last, about the Williams
& Clark plant, which. together with
other manufactures in the vicinity,
was being guarded at the time by a
hundred deputies imported to Roose-
welt by the sheriff of Middlsex coun-
ty, Edward +. Houghton, who claimed
that the owners of the mills had de-
manded that the county provide
proper protection for their plants
from the strikers who had gone out
because of a reduction in wages.
Many of the discontented men were
foreigners.
it was deemed best by the attorney
general to apply to the Supreme
Court for an order for a panel Of for
eign jurors to determine the cases
of the men.
The Supreme Court in granting the
application for the order stated that
while it hesitated to adopt such a
course the tendency of the public
press in MiddleseX county was such
as to try the cases of the men out of
court and inf1ame the public mind
against them, and II accordingly
granted the order for jury from out
side that county.
Feeling was strong against the
deputies at the time OF the shooting,
and it was feared that the public
funeral Of the two victims of the
affray between the strikers and the
guards would be the occasion for an