Evening star., 1923-01-13
GRAND Jury LETS
PELLET|ER co FREE
Evidence That Brought Gust
ing From Office Held Insult
fiCent for Indictment.
LACK FORMAL FINDING
Foreman Mcclure Insists Upon
Telling Court of Majority
Vote for No Bills.
by the Associated Press.

/ ny the Associated Press.
| BOSTON, January 13.-The evidence
| which the full bench OF the supreme
| court found sufficient to remove Jo-
seph c. Pelletier from office as district
attorney Of Suffolk county and to dis
bar him and Daniel II. Coakley was
held by grand jury called in special
session to consider its criminal phas-
es as lacking grounds for Indictment
| Although no formal finding to this
/ effect was entered, announcement of
such result was made in open court
! by Martin J. Mcclure. foreman of the
extraordinary session, after the grand
| jury had been summarly dismissed by
| Attorney General j. Weston Allen.
Jurors Asked Discharge.
Mr.. Allen discharged the grand jury
! in the room where for two weeks its
! secret review of the testimony Of
charged against Pelletier. Coak1ey
and other lawyers mas been conduct
! ed. This action. which he subsequent
| ly explained was taken because some
of the jurors asked for discharge on
the ground that things hal happened
which made 1T futile for them to go
on, ordinarily would prevent any
statement i'll court of the prior pro-
ceedings.
But Mcclure would not have 1t that
way He was the foreman, he said,
and he questioned the right of the
attorney general to end the life of the
| grand jury before il had made report
! of the vote which he said was taken
He asked that he be heard, and
Judge Bishop of the superior court
granted his request, with the injunc-
ton that he was still bound by his
oath not to disclose what went on in
the jury room.
Court IIalts speech.
After saying that tho grand jury
was discharged by the attorney gem
eral without explanation. the foreman
said a majority Of the grand jury
brought in no bills" against Coakley
and Pclletier, and he was naming an
other person when the court directed
| him to stop, admonishng him that
he could not say any more of that
! line. Mcclure continued, however, as
SertinE on his oath as a juror that
nothing had happened in the jury
! room that should cause dismissal, add
| ing his belief that it was the fact
was against indictment that caused
| the attorney general to discharge the
| session.
Many Cases Involved.
The cases on which evidence was
presented to the jurors included the
Emerson Motors case, in which wit
nesses have said that 100000 was
paid to CoaxIey, of which $4,000 went
| to Pelletier, to stop prosecution of
the company for stock frauds: the
Meyer Berman case, in which there
| has been testimony that $4,000 was
paid Coakley on his representation
that he would arrange with the dis
| trict attorney not to push charges
of IRE gularitieS at West End hotel;
the Emery case, in which Coakley
was alleged to have attempted the
cxtortion of $4,000 from the widow
of Il wealthy mill owner. on threats
Of pushing statutory charges against
her daughter and son-in-law; the
Metropolitan Motors case, in which
about $4,000 in alleged hush money
was involved; the Cote case, in which
Coakley was quoted as saying he
would use his influence with Pelle-
tier to force a young woman to aban-
don proceedings against a man who
later became her husband, and the
Broad case, testimony in which has
not become public. In all but the
Broad case the supreme court found
Pelletier guilty. In that it held the
charges not proved.
AS Attorney General Allen has only
a few more days in office, he an
nounced. he will not attempt to bring
the matter before another grand
! Jury Attorney General-elect Jay r.
Benton, at present his assistant
would not say what his plans were.