Evening star., 1932-04-27
|DUNCAN'S COUNSEL
HITS GRAND Jury
Plea in Abatement Cites IA
Reasons for Believing In
dictment Illegal.
By Stan Correspondent of The star.


ARLINGTON COUNTY COURT
HOUSE, April 27.-Former County
Clerk William H. Duncan was arraigned
before Judge Walter T. Mccarthy In
Circuit Court this morning on a charge
OF failing to account for public funds.
and his attorneys, Leo P. Harlow and
Amos c. Crounse, entered a plea In
abatement in which they named IA
reasons why they believed the indict-
ment to be illegal Five Of these were
aimed at the service on the grand
Jury OF Lyman M. Kelly, a member of
the county governing board.
By agreement between Common
wealth's Attorney Lawrence W. Douglas
and counsel for the defense, Judge Nc
Carthy set May 6 as the date for the
argument on the plea.
In the plea, 1t was stated that Kelly
was disqualified for service on the grand
jury because he was q newly elected
member OF the county board and there
fore could not legally be appointed TO
any other public Office for which he
mas received additional compensation
PAID by the State or one Of its poIit-
ical subdivisions.
Prejudice Is Charged.
Further attacks on the service of
Kelly were that as a member of the
county board he was one of the in
VeStlgatorS OF the proceedings resulting
In the indictment and one of the prose-
cutors of the defendant; that he was
disqualified because he was preiudiced
and had both formed and expressed
an opinion; that he was DISQUALIFIED
because he was an active candidate to
succeed the defendant in the office Of
county clerk, and that he was further
disqualified because he is the agent Of
the bonding company which is surety
on Duncan's official bond.
At the time of the convening of the
grand jury, Kelly asked that he be ex-
cused from service because of his on
clal position in the county, but the
court held at that tirf7e that this con-
nection did not diSqualify him for serv-
ice.
Hold Jury Was Misdirected.
Another reason why they believe the
indictment to be illegal is that Thomas
j. Crack, one Of the grand Jurors, is a,
member Of the Board of zoning Ap-
peals of the county.
1t is charged that the grand jury was
misdirected by the judge in that they
were instructed that nine of their num-
her must concur in finding an indict-
ment and that they were further misdi-
rected by the court stating that a true
bill could be returned upon concurrence
Of nine of the members
1t was further charged that members
Of the grand jury which returned the
Indictment were not residents of the
State Of Virginia and that the grand
jury was not selected from the several
magisterial districts as required by law.
The other reasons set forth were Of
purely technical nature.
Douglas Attacks Plea.
When shown copy of the plea,
Commonwealth Attorney Douglas asked
that some of the claims made in it be
made more specific and it was finally
agreed that he was to furnish list OF
these to the defense in order that they
might explain them more fully.
The task of reading the indictment
to Duncan fell to Mrs. Lorena Ellis,
who was deputy clerk under Duncan
and served as h'J secretary during the
entire IL years which he held Office
The audit of Duncan's books is to be
speeded up by the addition of two
more State auditors to the staff al
ready engaged in that work. The
new auditors, who arrived here late
yesterday, are John M. Purcell, jr.,
son of the State treasurer, and Thomas
Dunaway.
There are now total of nine audi
tors examining the county's books. Five
of these are working on the books of
former Treasurer e. Wade Ball and
the other four are on Duncan's books.
The audit of Balls books began on
February 20 and that of Duncan's
on March %.