New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-05-18
Smith Accused
OF Accepting
A $4,000 Bribe
Hirshfield Says Bartender
Testified at Secret Inquiry
That He Saw Actual Cash
Handed to the Prosecutor,
Sav;ner Case Is Cited
Swann's Aid, in Complete
Denial, Threatens to Ask
Grand Jury Investigation

David Hirshfeld. Commissioner of
Accounts, issued another installment
yesterday of his secret vice investiga-
tions, in which he set forth that Ber-
nard Freedman, a bartender. testified
before him on April that James E.
Smith, Assistant District Attorney. had
accepted $4,000 to suppress prosecu-
tion of a saloonkeeper charged with
having maintained disorderly house.
The latest Hirshfield attack on the
Assistant District Attorney. who had
been active in police prosecutions, dates
back further than some of his previous
sorties. Freedman, who was bar
tender for Saviner Brothers, who in
1913 owned a saloon at Third Avenue
and Sixteenth Street, testified, accord
ing to the commissioners statement,
that after Louis Saviner, one of the
brothers, was arrested in April, 1913,
on charge of keeping disorderly
house, he, Louis, gave $4,000 in cash to
Assistant District Attorney Smith to
LAY down. on the prosecution of the
case.
Freedman testified. according to
Hirshfeld, that he, his brother Harry
and Jacob l.. Goldman went to the
Colonial Hotel, at Eighth Avenue ana
]
money to Smith. Freedman, according
to Hirshfield. said he went to the
office of Mr.. Smith and that the latter
told him he would dispose of Saviner S
case if Freedman would tell him some
things he knew about the Police De-
partment
The bartender. according to the
Commissioner, said his brother Harry
was out in town at present "for fear
L. i
him in Jail" He said that his brother
had been down South for five years.
Freedman, according to the Hirshfeld
statement, described the "Trip to the
hotel and the meeting with Smith in
detail.
Commissioner Hirshfeld added that
the papers in the Saviner case, in the
files of the Office of the clerk of the
Court of Special Sessions, show that
Louis Saviner was arrested on war
rant issued by Chief City Magistrate
McAdoo and was arraigned before
Magistrate Campbell on April 13, 1913,
fame and was held in $500 bail.
On May /, 1913, Saviner was ar
raigned in Special Sessions and pleaded
not guilty, and on June 13 the $500
cash bail was forfeited on account of
the defendants non-appearance. A
bench warrant was issued for his ar
rest.
Mr.. Smith made the following reply
to the Hirshtield- Freedman allegations
last night:
81 never met Freedman, his brother
or Goldman in my life. They never
visited me at the District Attorneys
office or any other place. The whole
story is false from beginning to end
l am going to ask the grand jury te
take this matter up for a complete in
vestigation and ask for the indictment
Of the man who sent out this lying
statement.
This statement. like all others thai
have come from the same source, is
intended to prevent the investigation
now being conducted by the Distric
Attorneys office into the Police De
partment. Goldman is an ex-convic
and l am informed Freedman is also
an eX-convict.
1T is only natural that this man
Hirshfield, with his we'll known repu-
tation, should associate with eX-con-
victs and cadets. Nothing, however, IS
going to stop me from continuing my
work and landing those who have been
violating the law"