The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-01-03
DEFENSE ASKED
FOR DISMISSAL
After State Had Rested It's
Case in Williams
Trial
COURT PROMISED
DECISION LATER
State Had introduced Off
cial Report Of Accused
Officer

! After the state had introduced in evi.
dence to-day, under objection of the de-
fense, the reports of the bank commits.
sioner of Vermont for the years l9lG-I2-
IA and i on the accounts of the state
auditor, the state rested its case and was
Immediately followed by petition by
the respondents attorneys for dismissal
of counts one, two and seven of the in
dictmeDt on the ground that the state
had failed to substantiate its charge by
introducing as evidence the reports of
Commissioner 2. c. Williams, who is be
ing tried for malfeasance in failing to
make report.
After that the defense petitioned for
the wiping out of counts three. four. FIVE
and six Of the indictment, because the
state had referred in them TO acertai8
vouchers" which were declared to be
fraudulent without stating specifically
which vouchers.
After hearing the arguments pro and
con concerning the motion for the quash.
ing OF the Indictment, the court took the
case under advisement and announced
that decision would be returned on the
petition this afternoon
This action of the defense livened up
what had been a rather dull day in
Washington county court. The 1910 re
port of the bank commissioner read az
follows: Il examined the auditors ac-
counts as required by law and found
them correct The system of accounts is
excellent and fun information with rela-
tion to all accounts required by law to
be obtained by the auditor is easily
obtainable"
The defense obj d to the iutroduc-
tion Of official documents as evidence.
Immediately, however. on the states
resting its case. the respondents attor
neys asked for quashing of important
parts Of the indictment, as above related
f. 5. Pratt occupied short time this
morning amplifying his statements ~
yesterday afternoon about the methods
of making up the accounts He used the
ledger and explained the footings which
appear in the middle OF the page and
showed how the footings were carried
forward from year to year in some in
stances and how, in others. they were not
carried forward. The footings, which
really became balances, were carried for.
ward at some places.
In referring to the orders drawn bv
Graham on the state treasury. he said
that the whole amount during the time
that Williams was bank commissioner
was Sa6,700.3l, while the total credits. as
shown by the vouchers against the orders
in the same period. was $50. 2.657.9s In
1914 and 1915 the orders over Wondered
to an amount of 5000 l6 for the two
years. This amount taken from the dif-
ference between the orders and tie
vouchers left SI4,042.33, which. it was
claimed, is the total overdraft made in
those years by Graham and which it is
alleged Williams should have found
The state tried to show that MIR, Pratt
knew how the disbursing sheet should be
made up, but the defense objected on the
ground that the law records showed for
themselves. In cross examination the
defense showed that the accounts should
balance if all receipts were at hand, that
they did not check up and that tho
vouchers might have been removed when
Pratt examined the book.
Auditor Gates asked permission of the
court to correct some Of the evidence ho
gave yesterday morning. He wished il
to be shown that the date of entry of
the receipts was correct and not mistak.
en- for the date of entry OF the orders, as.
he might have been misunderstood in his,
earlier testimony. On the stand TODAY
Auditor Gates explained more in detail
about the keeping of the books