Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-05-26
INNEs' COUNSEL ABANDON
FIGHT AGAINST DORSEY
Motion to DiSQuaIify Solicitor
Never Was Formally Made
to the Court

The motion of attorneys for Victor
E. Innes and Mrs. Innes TO disquanty
Solicitor Hugh NJ. Dorsey, from prose-
cution of the lines case by reason or
the fact that he had received a lee
from Mrs. John w. helms, mother of
the missing helms girls, for secur-
ing the extradition of the Illnesses from
Texas, was dropped suddenly Wednes-
day morning following a conference be-
tween counsel on both sides of the case.
The motion was never formally pre-
scented to the court.
The hearing of the disqualification
proceedings was called before Judge
Ben Hill in the superior court Wednes-
day morning at $3.50 o'clock. Judge j.
X Hines and his associates in the
lines defense had ready for presenta-
ton a plea of abatement to quash the
indictment drawn against the Illnesses
by solicitor Dorsey. and by legal
point compelled Solicitor Dorsey to
specify the indictment under which the
Illnesses would be put on trial Monday.
After a recess and conference Solicit
tor Dorsey presented an Indictment
drawn against lnnes and Mrs. 1nnes in
October, 1914, prior to the time he was
employed by Mrs. helms in the extra
dition proceedings.
INDICTMENT NOT COVERED. 81
The plea of abatement drawn by the
Innes counsel covered any of the eight
indictments returned by the grand jury
several weeks ago, but had no bearing
on the indictment of 1914 under which
the solicitor announced he would try the
Illnesses Monday. The defense for this
reason asked time to draw a new mo-
ton seeking to disqualify the solicitor,
and were given until noon to prepare
this document. At noon it was an
nounced that the defense had decided to
drop the motion.
The trial of the Illnesses will proceed
Monday morning before Judge Hill with
Solicitor Dorsey prosecuting.
One important development in the
Innes case has been brought out by the
result of the. disqualification proceed
ings: The state has been forced by the
defense to fall back on the old indict-
ment of 1914. which was superseded sew
eral weeks ago by eight new indictments
drawn as 1t was ANNOUNCED at the time
because the old bill was too general and
possibly legally imperfect.
EMBODIES ALL CHARGES.
Again, the old indictment embodies
all of the charges of larceny after trust
held against the Illnesses, and under ii
the maximum penalty is seven years.
The eight new indictments made it pos
sible, in the event of conviction on all
Of the charges, for the Illnesses to re-
ceive total Of ffty-siX years, seven
ears under each Indictment
The Innes counsel, in the hearing
Wednesday morning, requested Solicitor
Dorsey to present the contract made
with Mrs. helms, under which the So
licitor would receive a fee of $1,000 for
representing Mrs. helms in the fight
to extradIte the Illnesses from Texas.
This was waived, however, when the
eszN
was lost and could not be found among
his papers. A part of the contract, the
solicitor stated, was on record, since
il embodied a mortgage to secure the
payment of the fee. A copy of the
81 900 contract was found later in the
day, but since the matter had been
dropped, it was not brought into court.