The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-09
FALLON FREED ! OF JURY BRIBE;; GETS OVATION New York Attorneys Ac- quittal Ends Bitter
 Trial STILL MAINTAINS
 WAS PLOT VICTIM Hearst Paper Charged With Attempt To De-
 strOy Him

NEW 1ORk, Aug. D. ne jury in the case of William J. Fallon, criminal lawyer, who has been on trial here charged with bribing a juror, returned a verdict of not guilty at Il :05 tonight. The jury was out al- most six hours.
 After a trial lasting about three weeks, one of the most bitterly fought legal battles New York city has seen, Fall lon walked out of the court room a free man.
 A wild demonstration fol- lowed the announcement of the verdict. Friends of the ac- cused lawyer, who have crowd ed the court room and corri- dors of the federal building each day of the trial, often battling with deputy marshals to get a glimpse of the de- fendant, rushed around him and cheered for many minutes, almost crushing him in their efforts to shake his hand.
 Victim Of Plot.
 The jury had listened to summations,, featured many elAshes with tbe court and opposipg counsel for threA hours while the defendant was speaking in his own defense Fall0n declared he was . victim of q plot engineered by Victor W atson, assistant publisher of the New York American. He renewed the tes-. timony regarding his visit to Watson's home and accused the newspaper off cial of falsehood in his statement to make him eapitulate
 T charge that the New York Amer ican. deliberately set out to destroy Fal- lon. Why do you think Watson wanted to see me at our meeting? You know what he wanted. He wanted something that have right here with me in the courtroom. Watson wanted the birth certificates of certain children, certifi- cates which Fallon had l mean the certificates often mentioned in this trial and the certificates concerning which Watson lied"
 At another point in his summary the attorney declared that he failed to un- derstand under what section of the law he was being tried. He said that three times he had tried to obtain a ruling on this point and'fOr the third time his effort was overruled.
 The trial had been repIete with eli maxes in which the names of promi- nent newspaper and theatrical per sOnages figured repeatedly. Fallon was indicted July Il, 1923, for alleged bribery of Charles w. Rendigs, a juror in the Durrell- Gregory mail fraud case FallOn's acquittal followed the confess sion of Rendigs to complicity in the al- legged transaction and his testimony in this case.
 Fallon, -the day after his indictment, issued a statement charging the New York American with cOncealing Ernest Eidlitz, witness FallOn wished in law suits then pending. At q hearing be- fore Justice Foley, Victor Watson, as- sistant publisher of the American, pro- posed to produce the witness.
 Eidlitz was the chief witness for the prosecution in the trial of Falon, tes- tifying that Fallon gave him check for $1,O00 signed by FallOns wife, which was to go to Rendigs. Watson was called as a witness for the defense and his testimony said he had advised Fallon to plead guilty, move for his own temporary disbarment and throw himself on the mercy of the court, say ing he had promised him help after ward. . M
 Vxyhov TraI1.. G..l. AL. 4u..d : k. own defense, after conducting personal ly most of the cross examination of the government witnesses he denied that Watson had said this and stated that the New York American had determined to "get him" because of his possession of birth certificate of the children of