New Britain herald., 1917-06-27
CRUGER DETECTIVE
 ADMITS FAILURE.
'Iaearenne May Be Tried for
 Gross Negligence

New York, June 27.-Detective Sergt. John l.. Lagarenne of the
 Fourth Branch Bureau, the man who
 was most closely connected with the unavailing search for Ruth Cruger im- mediately after her disappearance Feb. 13 last, will probably face a poe lice trial within few days on the charge of gross negligence growing out of his work on the assignment. Leonard M. Wallstein, the Com-
 missioner of Accounts who b inves- tiat1ng the Police Department's work
 Tn the Cruger matter, wrote letter to Police Commissioner Woods last night requesting that Lagarenne be
 called before the department tribunal.
 It, is understood that Commissioner Woods is ready and eager to follow the suggestion.
 Commissioner wallstein wrote his letter immediately after he had con- cluded an examination of Lagarenne
 which lasted several hours and which brought out unqualified admissions from the detective that he had neg lected or overlooked many tings which
 should have occurred to the mostsete-
 mentary sort of a sleuth.,
 For instance, Lagarenne adnaitted
 he had stood directly over Ruth Cru
 gers body (buried as 1t was in a
 hole beneath a heavy workbench in
 the cellar of Alfredo Cocchi. her mur-
 derer. and did not even think of tak-
 ing the step that would have re- vealed it. That is he made no att tempt to have the workbench moved aside.
 There was no evidence of crime; we had no right to ask that the bench
 be moved" was his excuse. He admitted he had no great amount of suspicion against Cocchi. This was for several reasons. One was that he (Iagarenne) had made up his mind that Ruth Cruger had gone away voluntarily. Another was that several persons told him-in the main they were motorcycle police men-that Cocchi was ''nice quiet chap" . perfectly reputable business man."
 Lagarenne admitted. also, these things:
 Ills search of the cocchi cellar was not thorough.
 He disregarded the information t64VOA r&AAAA Oy AAO40A SIa6OAs As0IAA elder sister, that during most of the day following Ruth's disappearance
 It Cocchi's shop the shop was closed
 and looked. That circumstances made
 no impression upon him.
 He felt sure that an unidentified
 girl who got into . tancab with an
 unidentified man, near Cocchi's place, was Ruth Cruger. because '.it was g.
 peculiar coincidence if there should
 be two girls. around there at <, the. same tdme answering the same de- scription."
 Lasarenne. undsr the srilling of Commissioners Wallstein, was Q pitt able object before the end of the
 session. He was obliged to confess
 that his mind worked in circle''- that 1t would have been necessary for
 him to ind body before deciding
 that crime had been committed, and
 yet that he would have to know q crime had been committed before he
 would start searching for a body.
 His constantly repeated explana- ton wAs: "Thsre was no suspicion of . crilne; no suspicion against Cocchi; tho xirl might have oone back" Examination of members of the po- Ace department was continued today by Commissioner Wallstsin. Commissioner Wallstein said that 20 detectives and higher officials of the police department had been called to tell all they knew of the efforts made by the police to md the young woman. Following his recommenda- ton last night that Lagarenne. be placed on trial for derelfction of duty, the commissioner said that unless
 other detectives and police officials can afford . bet4er explanation of
 their parts in the search for Ruth
 Cruger than LAngaTenne shall be
 forced to tAlEs siu1alar aotion in each
 and every caso."