The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1925-07-03
O'Grady Pleads Guilty and
Is Placed Under Supervi-
sion of State Prison Board

Continued from Page One)
THE LANG
TRIAL -. !
The Lang trial occupied nearly I
three days before it went TO the Jury,
who returned a verdict OF mot guI- |
ty' after being out one hour and five |
minutes. The jury, which was pre-
sided over by an eX-banker named !
Slette. CT Culbertson, an old crony of
Attorneys Onstad and Babcock, was
divided three for conviction and nine
for acquittal. During the course of
the trial, Atty. Onstad was seen to
wink many times in the direction Of
the compliment by closing his good
eye often enough to attract consider
able attention IN the court room.
The case was presented for the
State by County Attorney Erickson
and Atty. Harlow Pease Of Butte, and
was defended by Attys. Onstad &
Greer Of Plentywood. Greer, who at
one time, attracted considerable no
toriety as a legal defender of horse
thieves in Valley county, has now
qualified as an expert on law con-
corning stolen cars as was evidenced
by his lengthy quotations from Cor
pus Juris, Ruling Case law, and the
Arkansas reports.
O'GRADY CASE
OPENS
When the first of fifteen cases
against John O'Grady came up for
trial the Palm Room of the Sher-
man Hotel. which acted as court
room, was packed to the doors. As
the state had exhausted its challenges
before it got to eX-banker Slette,
that gentleman was again on the
jury.
Witness after witness went on the
stand and swore that they had paid
seed grain money to O'Grady which
was not shown by the books of Sheri-
dan county to be credited to the coun-
ty funds.
EVIDENCE
SHOWS GUILT
The present officials of Sheridan
county we're called to the stand to
testify as to the distribution OF seed
grain to the farmers Of Sheridan
county in 1920, how they gave notes
in return, how the collection of these
seed grain notes were handled by
Recorder under his wife, B. K. o.
Grady.
S. T. Klovstad and T. L. Lidahl,
who were appointed collectors by the
County Commissioners under the di-
rectiOn and supervision of John C..
O'Grady, were also subpoenaed and
told how they took checks, grain tic
kets and orders from the farmers in
part payment Of their Indebtedness
to Sheridan county and how they
turned the same over to O'Grady.
These grain tickets and checks were
introduced into evidence and all bore
the endorsements of John G. O'Grady
as deputy Clerk & Recorder. Eng
TOrstenson and D. j. Olson both tes-
titled that these collections had not
reached the treasurer's Office.
Jens Ibsen, former commissioner,
also appeared as a witness for the
State, but most of his evidence con-
corning the admission of John o.
Grady's default by O'Grady himself
was not allowed to be introduced.
EXAMINERS REPORT
CAPS THE CLIMAX
When the State started to present
the report of the State Examiner
showing that OGrady had misappro-
priated S2,141.67 OF county funds to
his own use, the faces of the ole
gangsters began to take on a gloomy
look. A new light began to- dawn on
the jury which was picked from the
vicinity of Wolf Point. Even ole
Settles cOcksure expression gave way
to one of grave concern. The extract
from the Examiners report, contain
ing such damning evident eff the guilt
of Governor Dixon's chief henchmar
in Sheridan county. which caused such
a sensation in the courtroom reads as
follows:
THE REPORT
''The figures in the report show
that we have charged Mr.. John
G. O'Grady with S2,141.67 for
collections made while acting as
the COunty's Agent, none of
which has been turned over to
the County Treasurer. Mr.. o.
Grady acknowledged having re-
ceived the above amount with
the. exception of one item of
S168.5O. The books show a cred
it for this amount.
Mr.. O'Grady states that he is
without funds to reimburse the
County, but will give security for
the amount. The County has not
received any funds OK security
from Mr.. O'Grady up to the close
of the audit made of the special
Relief Accounts. The County
Attorney and the Board of COun-
-