New Britain herald., 1925-03-16
SINCLAIR SCORES
 IN TEAPOT SUIT
Prosecution Hindered in Proving
 Bonds Were Given to Fall
JUDGE MAKES DECISION
Rules that Falls Bank Records May Not Be Introduced and This Causes Government to Rcorganize Its Attack.
By The Associated Press.


 By The Associated Press.
 Cheyenne. Wyo., March 1e.-EW- dence Attended to reveal the secrets Of the bank accounts of Albert B. Fall, former secretary of the inter- for, was barred from tho record in the Teapot Dome lease annulment suit here today.
 The rulnig barring the evidence, handed down by Federal Judge T. Blake Kennedy deprives the govern ment of It's only known means of at- tempting to prove an exchange of Liberty Bonds between Fall and liar ry r. Sinclair, whose Mammoth oil Co. was given the lease on the big Wyoming oil reserve.
 Government is Banled
 Judge Kennedy referred to the matter in question as involving something of unusual importance to the plaintiffs case, but that as the matter stands, 1t was manifestly incompetent and would be barred until such time as 1t was shown to be competent.
 Judge Kennedy's ruling left the governments case up in the air 60 completely that recess of ten min utes was allowed to permit Owen J. Roberts and Atlee Pomerene, gov- ernment counsel, to get their re- mainlng witnesses in shape.
 Courts Decision.
 "No reason is apparent to the court at tho present time at least, why the individual transactions in- volving the connection of the ex-sec- retary of the interior with bonds passing through the bank should not be proven by witnesses having that knowledge" Judge Kennedy ruled.
 Tn fact, one witness has offered evidence tending to show the sale of bonds by the bank, the proceeds of which were credited to the secre- tary's account.
 That IS perhaps q proper line of testimony, because 1t is the testi- mony of an individual having per- sonal knowledge of direct transac- ton and the court cannot assume, in the absence of some proof to the contrary, that each material transac- ton involved cannot be proved in the same name tafss at least1reiuaj,Ty lhe chance O. getting error into this record.
 "The fact that conspiracy here Is charged and the preferred evil dence would tend to afford an i'm portant link In the chain of it's es- tablishment should alone suggest to the court great care and caution in administering rules of evidence. The rule of necessity and 'exige.cy' does not seem to have here been sat- isf1ed.
 Another thing which strongly ap- peals to the court is the fact that at the present time the evidence which Is here rendered is incompe- tent and immaterial. for the reason that no attempt has been made to trace the bonds in controversy from Sinclair as their source, without which connecting link the whole evidence now rendered would have to be stricken.
 "The court is always inclined to indulge counsel in the matter of or der of proof, but here the order has been so strangly reversed and the evidence rendered so manifestly in- at the present time, that if the courts discretion is to be ex- arcised as the books say in matters of this kind. 1t would seem to be the courts duty in a case of this im- portance to at least sustain the ob- jections until such time as 1t ap- pears that the evidence so strongly contended for is either competent or and such. with the light the court now has, will be its ruling"
 Beaten on the point of law, which prevented the introduction in evil 1eace of the bank accounts of Fall. | government counsel began a new inc of attack in the Teapot Dome ease annullment suit today. They l placed witnesses on the stand in an effort to trace the bonds from Sin ,lair to Fall instead of from Fall | 70 Sinclair, as it originally set out | 70 do.