Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1921-09-30

redge to read a typewriter report 70
the jury in his charge. Notwithstand-
ing the claims of McCarter, the cbarpo
as delivered by Judge Eldredge was
regarded by disinterested spectator.
as absolutely fair and offered no suy-
gestions as to what the jury sbould
do. After being out about a half bopr
a verdict of guilty was brought in nv
the jury. This was the first verdict NJ
guilty so far in the Freebooter cases
1t was said on Wednesday by Pros
ecutor Cole that before the trials OPEN
ed two weeks ago several of the Free
holders came to him and proposed to
plead guilty to a minor count and be
fined and the other charges dropped
and that when the first two trials end
ed in acquittals they changed their
minds and decided to stand trial.
Thursday Morning
The Wildwood Crest-Turtle Gut Road
On Thursday morning, September
29, 1921, present F~reeholders Joseph
Camp, of Pierces; Hope w. Candy, of
Tuckahoe; and Joseph P.~MacKissic.
of Wildwood Crest and Lower town
ship were placed on trial charged with
unlawfully paying out money on the
Wildwood Crest-Cape May road, across
Turtle Gut Inlet. 1t was charged that
a supplemental contract was entered
into for something like $4,000 on this
road without advertising for bids.
AofiNn IN fhs1 rAod horlzo IoI -
March "a, 1917, more than four years
ago, when upon motion of Freebooter
MacKissic, seconded by Freebooter
Hilton, it was voted to take the neces-
sary steps to build this road on Two
Mile Beach to connect Wildwood Crest
and Wildwood with the deep water
channel at Cold Spring. The contract
was duly awarded to Cassidy & Ho-
man in November, 1917, for something
over $S4 1000. The big storm of April,
1918, came along and destroyed all the
work done during the previous winter,
and the contractors were financially
unable to continue the work. Accord
ing to common report the contractors
were ruined in a financial way. In
May, 1918, a delegation of Wildwood
business men appeared before the
Board of Freeholders and urged that
the Turtle Gut road be continued. At
the June, 1918, meeting of the Board,
Freebooter MacKissic presented a
resolution reciting that Cassidy & Ho-
man had been subjected to a loss of
$6,255 by reason of the April storm.
Same was referred to a committee,
which recommended the payment Of
this sum to the contractors. In the
meantime it was thought advisable by
the engineers and Board of Freehold
ers to reroute the roadin a way that
was believed would better Withstand
the action of the tides. This entailed
the expenditure of another large
sum of money and another contract
was entered into with Cassidy & Ho-
man for something like $140,0 900 in
August, 1918. 1t was this contract for
which no bids were advertised for.
Near the close of the proceedings on
Thursday afternoon Prosecutor New
corn charged Engineer Rice with a
deal involving $4,000, which bene-
flied the engineer personally. Mr.. Rice
denied this and explained how it came
about. He said that the late ]. Thomp-
son Baker and Philip P. Baker, being
anxious to have the road completed,
entered into an agreement with Rice
and the contractors to guarantee the
contractors from loss to an amount of
$4,000 if they would finish the road.
Mr.. Rice said it was merely a guaran-
tee to assist the contractors and that
he (Mr. Rice) profited nothing by the
operation. Under cross-examination
Mr.. Rice testified that all plans for the
work on Turtle Gut road were APP
proved by the State Highway Commits
sion. Mr.. Rice was on the stand when
court adjourned Thursday afternoon
until nine o'clock on Friday morning.
The jury sitting to pass judgment
on the above cast is as follows:
Carl Baker, railroader, Tuckaho;
Leaning F. Corson, farmer, Palermo;
Percy L. Douglass, bayman, Dias
Greek; Charles r. Holmes, carpenter
Court House; Howard G.. Somers, mer-
chant, Belleplain; Harry Mcpherson,
station agent, 'Burleigh; Howard
Sites, farmer, Beesley's Point; Oscar
E. Lehman, retired, Rio Grande; Ed
win q. Mills, painter, Court House
D. Cyrus Tudor, farmer. Burleign'
Frank Hebenthal, merchant, Cape
May; Leon Devault, carpenter, Pa
lermo.