Evening star., 1925-01-21
Defense in Jersey Bribery
Case Accuses Anti-SaIoon
Body Officer.
SENATOR NOT PRESENT
AS TESTIMONY CLOSES
Last Witness Against Officials As
sailed as Former Nickel
Thief"
BY the 4 ssociated Press.
JERSEY CITY, n. J., January q

By the Associated Press.
JERSEY CITY, N. J., January q
New Jerseys rum conspiracy case.
in which 10 weehawken policemen
and two civilians are standing trial
on indictments charging wholesale
bootlegging activities. will go to the
jury late this afternoon, another ex-
ample of the rapidity of Jersey
justice"
With lightning rapidity taking o.
testimony in the trial, which opened
Monday, ended this morning, and by
II o'clock George Cutley, chief of
defense counsel, had completed
dramatic summation of the testimony
from the point of view OF the accused
men.
Senator Edward l. Edwards, form
er Governor Of New Jersey. accused
by three prohibition agents yesterday
as the chief backer" of the whole
sale rum conspirators, did not come
here to deny the accusation.
The climax of Cutley's dramatic
summation came with his charge thai
the implication of Senator Edwards
in the case was the fruit of frame
up" of which Samuel Wilson. assistant
superintendent of the Anti-Saloon
League of New Jersey, was the author
Wilson was in the crowded court
room. Cutley pointed a dramatic
finger at him
Points Out Accused.
There's the man. he told the jury.
who is the author of this frame up.
He started out to get Senator Ed
wards a year ago. and here's the
sorry result"
TX TODAY
and his admissions on the stand pro-
vided the foundation for Cutley's at
tack of the prosecutions case. This
was Lionel Wilson, the first Of the
trio of dry agents who yesterday took
the stand and told a story of having
given s3,S00 to Senator Edwards to
be held in Escrow for later payment
to William F. Griffin, alleged mas
ter mind of the conspiracy and one
of the defendants, after Griffin had
delivered 100 cases of Scotch whisky
to the Pseudo boOtleggers.
Wilson. recalled for re-cross exam
ination, admitted to Cuuey that In
July 1913, he had been convicted
of petty laceny in New York court,
and later had been dismissed from
the employ of the New York Tele-
phone Co. for having ritled coin
boxes.
Attacks witness RECORD.
II don't think that a man who
steals coinS-nick els-from a teie-
phone box should be allowed TO come
into court and attack the reputation
of a United States Senator" Cutley
said.
He declared that the prosecutions
case rested chiefly on the testimony
of the Rev Father George Bennett,
Roman Catholic priest. who exploded
the rum conspiracy bombshell last
Fall. He laid great stress on the
priests failure to identify Griffin in
the court room.
George T. Vickers, special prosecu-
tor. followed Cutley in summing W
the prosecutors side Of the case.
Depends on Evidence.
After speaking almost two hours,
in which he made but slight refer
ence to Senator Edwards, Prosecu-
tor Vickers rested.
Vickers based his summation, in
the main, on the testimony of Father
Bennett, declaring that the jury must
either decide that the priest lied on
the stand or that the three police
men-defendants who testified per-
jured themselves. He said he hoped
the ventriloquism of vice." would
not permeat the jury room.
Father Bennett and the other
prosecution witnesses gave all the
evidence necessary if you want to
convict" he said.
Saying that Senator Edwards in no
way figured in the present trial, he
added that his name had been brought
into the case by the prosecution in its
effort to connect Griffin with the rum
conspiracy.
To the defense's charges that the
linking of the Senator's name with
Griffin's was the result of a frame
up" he pointed to the fact that the
prosecution was in the hands Of John
Milton, who, he said, had succeeded
Woodrow Wilson in the leadership of
New Jersey Democrats. No man in
this position, he argued, would lend
himself to the furtherance of 2
"frame-up" against a Senator of his
own party.