New Britain herald., 1926-01-20
OFFICIALS TESTIFY IN S25,O00 ACTION
Detective Sergeant McCue, Prosecutor Woods on Stand
FOREMAN VAGUE ON DATES
Hickey Tells of Conference in AL corn's office, Followed by Return of Trunk Full of Furs by Forman Lawyers in Tilt.
(Specla, to The Herald.

(SpeclaI to The heratd.)
 Hartford, Jan. 20.-The case of Ben S. Forman of New York against Edw. Meshken, in which the former sued the latter for s25,0O0 for fals' arrest, was continued this morning at 10 o'clock in the superior court with Mir. Forman on the stand being ross-examined by Attorney John T. Robinson. Forman was questioned about dates, but his memory was vague,
 After Forman, Detective Sergeant William P. McCue of New Britain was called to the stand and was asked about when he first came into the case. He said that on Jan. 3, 1923, he received Instructions from Chief Hart 10 go to New York 10 get Forman. When Forman was pre- scented in New York before him there was some talk about a gun, Forman being the one 10 mention it, but Meshken. who was with Detec- tive Sergeant McCue, denied every thing Forman said about the gun. After that he said he did not re- member exactly what the conversa- ton was, though one thing did stay in his memory, and that was that Forman said to Meshken: You give me my furs and I'll give you yours" He said the only purpose for which Meshken had been taken to New York with him was 10 identify For man. He said he had prepared ex- tradition papers to bring Forman 10 Connecticut, but his lawyer, Jacob Goodhart, had In the meantime tclephoned to Prosecuting Attorney Woods in New Britain that he would produce Forman whenever he want cd him. Prosecutor Woods can celled the eNtradition papers.
 Prosecutor Joseph T. Woods of New Britain was next on the stand. He said he first entered the case on the night of January Srd, 1923, when Lawyer M. D. Saxe tclephoned to Woods at his home about 10 0 clock and told him that MT. Mesh ken was in his office and wanted to get Forman arrested on a charge Of getting furs from him under false pretenses. Meshken said he wanted him to get Forman right away because he (Forman) was planning 10 sail to Europe. Woods said he called the police department and they started immediately after the man. He began the extradition papers.
 On cross examination he said that from the story told him by Mesh ken he thought it was necessary to issue a warrant for Forman and said it was simply because of the story that Meshken told him, that he issued the warrant. He said that the only thing that Meshken told him about Forman besides the act of taking the furs, was that Forman had stopped payment on a check for $500. He said he did not tell him about any transaction at Meshken's nome or about any pa pers being signed.
 Following Woods testimony For man was recalled to the stand and after a few questions by his own attorney, Mir. Robinson asked him if he had sent Meshken's goods by an agreement with States Attorney Alcorn to Meshken. He asked him if he sent them through Mir. Alcorn. At this point there was quite a tiff between the lawyers and finally the answer to the question was that he had sent the goods back through Detective Hickey but he had never received any goods from Meshken.
 Detective Hickey took the stand. He said that the case first came to his attention in February when 1t was bound over from the New Britain court to the superior court in Hartford. He said that he began an investigation of the facts in the case and from that investigation a conference had been called al