Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1928-10-25

her Miss Hovet locked the door when
she went out or not, of my own know
ledge. At the time | was in the vault
there and someone said 'Hands up"
l didn't think at the time as to whet-
her she was there or not. l knew that
Miss Hovet had not gone home. If i
heard any one moving around before
l was told to put up my hands or heard
any noise, I would not have assumed
it was robbers. I would have assumed
that it WAS Miss Hovet coming back
in the door.
q. Now. in regard to this exhibit
81 On which you were Intercepted:
81 is the letter or statement which you
stated you signed on January 90, 1927,
at the request of lee Perhaps
you don't know the exhibit to which
/ refer. Exhibit handed to winess).
l will ask you to explain the circum-
stance under which you wrote that
letter?
A. Well, this was on the goth day
of January following the holdup and
Mr.. Erb had been there then from
sometime in September, anyway, /
believe for a month, and he had all
access to everything in the office and
OF the vaults and whenever he wanted
to go at any time for considerably
over a month, and, as far as any one
in the office knew he had never been
prevented from examining any rec
ord or anything in which the county
had any interest or right to. On this
day, while / was in the office, Mr..
Erb walked right into the vault, and,
not knowing what Mr.. Erb wanted to
do in there, l walked and followed
him in, and he looked in the round safe
looked around in there, and | stayed
there and watched him--I didn't say
anything-and he kind of poked ar
ound into everything, and after he
got through in there, there were some
warrants there which had been held
for a long time that we had received
from some closed banks, and he looked
into that, and after that he went into
the square safe and he went in and
looked at the cash drawer-no objec-
ton to that-and below that there
was n which had some personal
papers and stuff and when he started
to look into that drawer / told him
1T was my personal letters and stuff
and | didn't know whether he had any
right to look through my personal
papers or not. Well, he insisted he
did, in a kind of sneering manner, and
| got a little bit hot and told him he
couldn't do it, and so he went to the
telephone and called Mr.. Clawson. and
while he called Mr.. Clawson, | took
those papers and bundled them IN
and took them into Dan Olson, Clerk
of the Court. Then | went back to
the office and in a very few minutes
Mr.. Clawson arrived along with Mr..
Erb, and then Nh. Clawson and Mr..
Erb come into my private office and
then Mr. Clawson began to talk, try
ing to get a confession out of me OF
something like that. Then, after he
had talked a while / told him | would
be willing to show the papers il he
wanted to, but he said at that time
he didn't want to, but he wanted al
that time-he wanted a statement
from me that | had declined to show
him those documents, and | called MI
Erickson down there, the County at.
torney, and told him the circumstances
and asked him if it was alright t.
sign that statement, and Mr.. Erickson
said as long as there was no count,
records there. and the statement die
not show he was prevented from see.
ing county records, for me to sign the
paper. That was the last day Mr.
Erb was there or Mr.. Clawson.
believe they went away the next day
or Immediately afterwards.
WITNESS CONTINUING)
Mr.. Erb arrived there sometime in
December, and during that time, a
month or more, he at all times had
access to all records and files in the
office of the County Treasurer OF
Sheridan county. AS to the particu.
lar drawer in which | had my private
papers, he could have walked in there
lots of times without my knowing
anything about it and examined that,
The drawer was not locked except
when the safe was locked and any
time the safe was open the drawer
could have been opened. There was
a month or more Mr.. Erb could have
examined those papers if he had SC
desired. The papers did not con
tain anything pertaining to county
business.
1t was just a few minutes after Mr.
Erb asked me to examine those papers
That Mr.. Clawson arrived at the court