Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1919-03-27
SAYS DOCUMENT
IS FRAUDULENT

Rutland. March 25.-Albert S. Osborne
or New York. who has been associated
with many famc-~ cases during rs years
experience in work which includes serv-
Ices for SO States and the Dominion of
| Canada. was CALI to the witness stand
by the prosecution in Rutland county
court to-day to testify as a handwriting
expert against George =. Eastman, now
on trial on charge Of perjury. II is
asserted that Mr.. Eastman gave while
witness in a civil case between him and
the Vermont Marble company false testi-
mony as to his whereab bouts Just before
May 7, 1917. when he produced what he
claimed was new evidence in the civil
case in the form of an agreement, dated
july 1882, which gave an option on GER
tam land at West Rutland. This paper
would have meant many thousands of
dollars in the pocket of Eastman, IL
proved. but he later withdrew 1t.
MI osborne told of examining a photo
graph of the document, Just after its
alleged discovery by Ernest H. O'Br1en
In files belonging to the late Attorney
Joel c. Baker whose office O'Brien &C.
cupies. The expert had later examined
the original document and had made
photographs of 1t as we'll as certain
parts of it where engagements of sigma
lures were required.
Comparison of the signatures Tho anal
ity or the paper. the typewriting and the
INK had been taken into consideration by
Mr.. Osborne in making an examination ~
the document which he branded as unoues-
tionably n fraudulent one He had a
number of signatures Of the men whose
names appeared on the document to he
used as standards. He explained to the
jury In detail how he arrived at his con-
clusions as to the various parts Of the
paper. One point made was that the
names on the document were made by
tracing.
1t was left to the court to decide which
signatures should be considered as stand
ards of the persons concerned in making
the comparisons with those on the dis
puted paper
Mr. Osborne testified at great length in
the previous hearing before Chancellor
Frank l.. Fish Of Vergennes when East
man made an attempt TO reopen the civil
case on the strength of his new evidence
and many people who listened to the ex-
pert then were again in court to-day as
spectators.
Carl S. Cole. cashier of the Rutland
County National bank, where Mr. O'Brien
has an account. was called to the stand
to identify the signature Of O'Briene on a
register of the Stanwix Hotel in Albany,
n. Y, where 1t Is claimed by the State
that Eastman met OBrIen the day before
the agreement made its appearance, East
man registering as G. L. Brown of Bos-
ton. The respondents counsel admitted
the OBrien signature was genuine so no
questions were asked of Mr.. Cole.
Miss Josephine Flynn Of Washington,
d. c., formerly Of this city, who was a
stenographer in the law office Of Mr.
O'Brien at the time the latter Is claimed
to have found the paper In the Baker files
and for some time prior to and after that
date, was a witness for the State to-day.
She told of an occasion during the winter
of l9l6-lsl7. or before the paper appeared.
when Eastman went to OBriens office
and asked to see a bunch of papers re-
iating to the Rutland Blue and White
Marble company which were in the Baker
files He was given permission to see
the papers and when the stenographer left
the office ror the day on that occasion
Eastman was still busy with the files.
On later occasion Miss Flynn, Just to
satisfy her curiosity as to what the papers
were. looked into the file and the papers
were not there.
Attorney John w Gordon of Barre in
his closs-examination attempted to show
that Miss Flynn had been confused In her
dates and that it was an occasion after
the disputed paper was found that East
man went 10 the O'Brien office and that
he went in reference to a Kennedy Brack-
EFT case but the witness was not shaken
on this point.