Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-12
PITTS CONTEMPT
CASE NEAR CLOSE
Counsel for Government
Reads Transcript of Testi-
mony of December Trial.

Contempt of court proceedings against
G. Bryan Pitts, former head of the
F. H. Smith Co., had been virtually
completed at noon today in District
Supreme Court.
Pitts is accused of introducing In
evidence at his recent trial on con-
spiracy- embezzlement charges a num-
Der OF spurious documents purporting
to show he was entitled to receive
money the Government charged he had
embezzled.
Counsel for the Government this
morning read to Justice F.. D. Let's
the transcript of Pitts testimony at tn.
trial last December.
Transcript Read in Court.
This transcript showed that Pitts
then testified he secured the allegedly
spurious documents, a number of au-
thorizations and receipts, from the files
OF the Smith company in December,
1929, shortly before he resigned as
president Of that concern. The Gov
eminent has charged, however, that
these documents were, in fact, pre-
pared at Pitts home in Palm Beach
Fla, during the Fall of 1880.
The transcript Of the record was read
to the court by Nugent Doods, Assist
ant Attorney General; Neil Burkinshaw.
a special assistant, and William A. Gal
lagher. an assistant U. S. attorney. as
signed TO aid in the prosecution of this
case.
There were also present at the Gov
| frio TO
Louis Loebl and Aaron jacobsen, spe-
cial agents of the Bureau of Investiga-
| ton, who figured prominently in the
preparation of the case against Pitts,
and e. j. Armbruster, an expert &C
countant of the bureau.
Escapes Service Of Papers.
1t developed at the hearing yesterday
afternoon that Pitts on one occasion
used an automobile belonging to Will
liam J. Donovan, former Assistant At
torney General, to escape service Of
papers in a civil suit Edmund A.
Toland. an attorney, testified that Pitts
walked out of side door of an Alexan-
dria, Va, hotel one night in October,
1880; eluded deputy marshal waiting
at the front door, and drove to Rich
mond, Va, in Donovan's car. There,
Toland said, he boarded q train for
Florida.
Heavily armed with machine guns,
Pitts special guardsmen got him safely
away from the court house after yes
terday's contempt hearing, but almost
ran down the Governments counsel in
the process.
Attracted by the publicity given the
unusual precautions to Illustrate a ru-
mored plot to liberate Pitts, a large
crowd gathered to watch him leave the
court house for the jail yesterday.
Pitts, handcuffed to Deputy Marshal
Gus Cerimele, was hustled out side
door and into the prison van. Behind
the van, with motor running. stood a
sedan filled with deputy United States
headquarters car carrying four detec-
tives, and, presumably, the machine
guns.
The van made a quick getaway, but
the driver of the marShals' car stalled
his motor in an effort to follow too
quickly BY the time the driver had
again started the motor, the van was
nearly out Of sight.
Possibly with thoughts of an escape
the gas, footed his horn Justify and
sped in pursuit.
In the meantime. however. Assistant
Attorney General Dodds, Special AS
sistant Burkinshaw and Louis Loebl,
agent of the Bureau Of Investigation,
had left the court house and were
walking down the drive. They heard
the warning blast of the horn from the
marshals' car just in time to step
hastily aside as the belated guards
whiZzed by.
Pitts, incidentally, reached the jail
safely his unidentified liberators being
conspicuously absent.