The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-02-22
Four Guilty of Contempt,
: Judge Finds; Jail Term
to Millionaire.
SHADOWING DENOUNCED
Stewart HabeaS Corpus
Writ Fight Ruling May
b Be Made Wednesday.
BY HERBERT LITTLE
United Press staff Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22.-The
Government today marked down its
fourth victory in six oil trials, and
Harry F.. Sinclair, multimillionaire
center of the Teapot Dome scandal,
contemplated Jail sentences totalling
nine months imposed upon him in
two of the cases.
Justice Frederick L. SiddonS in
District of Columbia Supreme Court
imposed a SiX-month sentence on
Sinclair late Monday as the climax
Of the long contempt of court case
resulting from the magnate's en-
ployment of Burns detectives to
shadow Fall-Sinclair trial jurors.
Henry Mason Day, Sinclair agent
in the jury espionage, was SEN
fenced to four months; William j.
Burns, famous detective who made
false charges that the Government
had approached a Fall-Sinclair
juror, got fifteen days; and his son,
w. Sherman Burns, executive of the
agency which provided the jury
shadowerS, was let off with a $1,000
fine.
All Free on Bond
All four were free on bond today,
having noted appeals and put up
bond after Justice Siddons scath-
ingly denounced their jury-spying
and imposed sentences.
The younger Burns unSucceSSfully
tried to renounce his right to a
light sentence in favor of his father
The elder Burns dramatically and
loudly pronounced himself as "in-
nocent as an unborn babe" and Day,
debonair international agent for the
great oil man, said the jury-shadow-
ing was undertaken to protect a
friend from enemies.
Sinclair alone was imperturbable
You set this surveillance afoot;
you authorized this thing to be
done" the judge told him. "It is a
little difficult to see how one con-
SciouS of innocence should have
done So"
Justice Siddons, in holding all
four guilty, asserted the jury
shadowing was disastrous thing"
and that the mistrial would not have
occurred but for this espionage.
Other Cases Up Soon
Argument of their appeals in the
District Court of Appeals will not
come before next fall
While Sinclair returns to New
York to his worldwide oil business,
three developments affecting others
in the numerous oil cases are ex-
pected soon. Justice Jennings
Bailey is to rule probably Wednes-,
day on the habeas corpus fight for
freedom Of Col Robert w. Stewart,
Standard Oil Company of Indiana
executive, deciding whether the
Senate had right to arrest him;
the grand jury is expected shortly
to return an indictment charging
him with contempt of the Senate
for refusing to testify fully before
the renewed Teapot Dome inquiry,
and the contempt of court case
against Harry M Blackmer, missing
Teapot Dome witness, is scheduled
to open before Siddons next Mon
day.
IT, Wins Four Cases
On April 2. Sinclair and former
Secretary of Interior Albert B. Fall
are scheduled to be tried again.
The Government now has won
the Sinclair Senate contempt case,
the two civil suits brought to annul
the Teapot Dome and Elk Hills
leases made by Fall, and the jury
shadowing case.
Fall and E. L. Doheny, Elk Hills
lessee, were acquitted in one crimi-
inal case, and the Fall-Sinclair
mistrial brought the failures to two.