Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-02-03
WOMAN'S ILLNESS
HALTS BUSCH TRIAL
Question Raised by Moreno
Also Figures in Adjourn
ment Until Monday.


with first degree murder in connection
with the death of Policeman Leo w. *.
Busch was adjourned until Monday
an hour after the session opened in
Criminal Division Q this morning.
The halt in the proceedings was
brought about by the inability of Mrs.
GLADYS Pope whose testimony was in
terrupted last week by illness, to re
sumo the stand today, and also by the
question raised by Samuel Moreno,
one OF the defendants. about the volun-
fairness of his statement of the
shooting.
Assistant United States Attorney
George d. Horning, ir., in charge of
the Governments case. stated that he
had only two more phases of evidence
to offer, one of them being concerned
with the statement by Moreno. ThiE
defendants counsel, ii was understood.
had planned on questioning the volun-
fairness of Morenos statement by
calling several witnesses to testify to
his condition at the TIME he signed
the declaration. Moreno was wounded
twice in the Petworth gun battle.
Horning Takes Stand.
Justice William Hitz, it was under
stood. is willing to allow Horning to
Sergt. Fred Sandberg that the bullets
found in Busch's body could not have
been fired by Policeman Frank l.. Ach,
the dead officers companion in the
shooting This testimony Is the re-
suit of some experiments made by
Sandberg with Ach's gun, and also
involved the weighing of the three
bullets taken from Busch's body in
the office of the chief of ordnance.
When HOrning sought to present
this testimony yesterday afternoon,
the defense objected on the ground
that he had removed evidence in
this case" for experimentation without
consulting the defendants. After
long consultation with Justice HitZ at
the bench this morning, in which all
attorneys participated, Horning him.
self took the stand, was sworn and
testified that last Saturday morning
he secured from the court clerk six
bullets and three revolvers which he
took to the Office of chief of ordnance
and returned them TO this court in
the same condition as they were when
taken"
Three Of the bullets were from the
body of Busch, the other three from
Ach's body. Two of the revolvers
were found on the scene of the shoot
ing and the third was used by Ach in
the battle.
Defense Attacks Horning.
The session ended yesterday after
noon with an attack on Horning by
the defense for removing exhibits In
the case from the courtroom and con-
Quoting experiments on them without
~. lnF 10 - 1HAI
When Horning placed Detective Sergt.
Fred Sandberg on the stand to testify
to experiments he had made, which
were to show that it would have been
impossible for Policeman Frank l..
Ach to have shot Busch, as the de-
Tense has intimated, O'Shea launched
the attack against the prosecutor.
McCabe's counsel told the court that
bullets from Buschs body were in
trusted to this court and they should
not have been taken from 1t. No
notice was given to us and we were
entitled to be there. This is a fine
procedure, when four defendants are
on trial FOR their lives and the Gov
eminent takes evidence out of court.
We protest and object to it."
With the jury absent, it was ex-
planned by Horning that the three
Busch bullets were taken to the office
of chief of ordnance and weighed and
that Ach's revolver was fired by Sand
berg, with the view of comparing the
discharged bullets with the ones re-
moved from the body of the officer.
O'Shea shouted to Horning that he OBJ
jected ito your tampering with evil
dence that is in the custody of the
clerk and I object to your putting one
grain of dust on the bullets"
S,Y A.. AL Gn1 {rhf
to do it." Justice Hitz said to Horning,
and the young prosecutor replied: IT
am sorry. They have been in my
possession for a long time and / saw
that their condition was not changed"
Both the court and O'Shea said they
believed Horning acted in good faith.
Horning said he expected to prove
that the bullets from Busch's body
weighed lac grains whereas the ".38
special bullets, supposed to be sim
lar to the ones fired by Ach, weighed
1873 grains.
O'Shea Notes Objection.
O'Shea then declared he would OBJ
ject to any conclusions by Sandberg
from tests he made, adding that the
only comparison that could be drawn
would involve the bullets being fired
into a human body.
HTlOF 10 LfllS 1dpt' iCu-
erick Cornwell of the tenth precinct
was recalled by O'Shea with
the police blotter containing the Incl.
dental which gave the description of
the men wanted for the shooting.
Cornwell previously had testified
that he received from Busch descrip-
ton OF all four men and had made
note of it at the time. He returned
to the station house and gave the
writing to the station clerk, Luther
Allen, who entered it in the book and
telephoned it to police headquarters
as a lookout"
O'Shea had Cornwell read the Incl
dental" which said: Look out for
four young white men, two tall and
wearing light clothes. No. 8 is short,
wearing green slicker with long dark
hair; one that did the shooting. No
description of No. A."
Cornwell steadfastly maintained
that he had noted a description of the
fourth man and that something" had
been left cut in transferring the nota-
ton from his memorandum to the
book.