Evening star., 1927-02-09
HEARING DELAYED
IN COOPER CASE
la Guardia's InSiStence on
Accused Judges Testifying
HaItS House Probe.


Beginning hearings today on a reso-
| luton by Representative La Guardia,
| Republican. of New York, calling for
| the impeachment of Federal Judge
| Frank Cooper of that State, the House
| judiciary committee was forced into a
| closed session by the insistence of Mr..
La Guardia that the jurist take the
stand as a witness.
After Mr.. La Guardia had cited a
Treasury report representing Judge
:, Cooper as having acquiesced in a
plan whereby prohibition enforcement
agents had engaged in rum-running
activities in order to obtain evidence,
the Representative called the judge
as his first witness.
Several members of the committee
protested that such procedure would
be highly irregular and Chairman
Graham sustained their views. He
had previously ruled that Judge
Cooper need only answer questions
put by members of the committee.
Procedure Is Studied.
The closed session was ordered so
the committee might decide the fu-
ture course of the hearing, whether it
ity giving Il power to summon and
swear witnesses and whether Mr.. La
Guardia produced in the brief open
session sufficient SubStantiatiOn of his
charges to warrant further action.
Mr. LaGuardia presented a copy of
the Treasury report. which incor-
porated a memorandum by r. @.
Merrick. former prohibition admins
traitor at New York, in which Mer
rick related that he had met with
Judge Cooper at the latter's sugges-
ton in December. 1924, to devise
means for entrapping bootleggers by
selling them liquor brought over from
Canada by prohibition agents.
Reading of the report produced
heated discussion within the commit
tee as to whether Mr.. LaGuardia had
actually substantiated his charges in
sary for him to produce Merrick as a
witness.
CelIer Asks Investigation.
The first order of business was to
receive Judge Cooper's reply to the
charges of unfitness for office on the
ground that he conspired with pro-
hibition agents to entrap persons into
dry law violations and subsequently
tried and sentenced such violators in
his own court.
Besides La Guardia's resolution de-
manding impeachment, the commit
tee has before it a resolution by Rep
resentative Celler. Democrat, New
York, requesting an investigation of
the judges fitness for office.
At the outset of the hearing, Chair
man Graham ruled that inasmuch as
hn n 1oro n
not stipulate that witnesses could be
cross-examined, the only questions
which Judge Cooper would be required
to answer would be those of commit
tee members.
This decision blocked the desire of
La Guardia and Celler to question the
jurist at length concerning statements
that he conspired with Merrick.
La Guardia Recites Charges.
Called as the first witness, Mr.. La
Guardia recited the allegations on
which he based his demand for inn
parchment. He read from the Treas
ury report, signed by Assistant Secre-
tary Andrews, which related that
Cooper and Merrick had met in AL
bany, N. Y. to discuss the plan under
which prohibition agents would snug
gle liquor into the State from Canada
and sell it to dealers and customers,
who would be subsequently arrested.
Thirty or more search warrants re-
sulting from the traffic were served
when the agents had obtained evidence
on nearly every big bootlegger in the
State" LaGuardia said, and agents
engaged in the traffic were attached to
the district attorneys office to assist
in drawing up indictments. The
Treasury report related that nearly all
of the bootleggers brought before
Judge Cooper had been convicted, he
said.
Judge Cooper was present at the
hearing with his attorney, Elisha Han
son of Washington, who told the COM
mittee just before it adjourned that
If this We're in Criminal Court /
would at this point move for dismissal
of the charges, and I would do it
here now if the motion were in order"