Evening star., 1932-04-19
THREE ARLINGTON
OFFICIALS INDICTED
Two Charged With Failure to
Account for Money, One
With Forgery.
Ry a star corresnondent of rhe Star.

By stan Correspondent of The Star.
ARLINGTON COUNTY COURT
HOUSE, Va. April ls.-Indictments
charging County Clerk William H. Dun
can and former Treasurer E. Wade Ball
with failure to account for public funds
and F. J. Hallock, former clerk of the
school board, with forgery were re-
turned late yesterday by grand jury
here. The indictments were accompa-
MED by recommendation that custer
proceedings be instituted against Dun
can at once.
The indictments were returned fol-
lowing an all-day session that was de.
voted principally to the consideration Of
the alleged shortage cases involving
Duncan, Ball and Hallock. One indict-
ment each was returned against Duncan
and Ball, the former being charged with
failure to account for S7,815 and the
latter with failure to account for S24,-
45429 Hallock was indicted on seven
cases of forgery, totaling $500.
Further Cases Doubtful.
Commonwealth Attorney Lawrence w,
Douglas stated today that the mdict-
ments relate to specific offenses that
the State believes will be easy to prove.
AS to whether there will be further
cases presented to the grand jury de-
pends upon the final result Of the audit
now being conducted under the super
vision of State Auditor of Public Ac-
counts T. Coleman Andrews, Douglas
said.
The indictments against Hallock
charge that he forged the amounts m
serted before he is claimed TO nave
had the warrants cashed.
Attorneys for the accused appeared
T,,Io Iya1 MR(arfhV after
the grand jury had reported and asked
that the cases be continued until to-
morrow morning, at which time they
are either to be set for trial or con-
tinued. The request was granted.
While Judge Mccarthy did not COM
ment upon the recommendation that
custer proceedings be instituted against
Duncan, it was not believed that any
action would be taken along these lines
prior to the expiration OF the lO-oay
period allowed earlier in the day by the
court for Duncan to increase his pres
ent bond of $4,000 to $4,000.
Ball was the only one OF the three
men indicted who was present at the
time the grand jury reported; He nsd
been in the court room all day. Hal
lock was in the ofice of his attorney,
former State Senator Frank L. Ball,
but Duncan did not appear, his attor-
neys presenting a doctors certlncate
showing he was physically unable to
attend.
Information was furnished the grand
jury by State Auditor Andrews and two
OF his deputies, r. B. Jordan and l..
Mccarthy Downs These were called
into the grand jury room frequently
during the day.
Efforts of Duncans attorneys, Leo P.
Harlow and Amos G. Crounse, to pre-
vent action on the rule recently issued
against Duncan requiring him to ap-
pear in court and show cause why his
bond should not be increased failed
when Judge Mccarthy refused to con-
slider Duncan's non-appearance as just
cause for continuance. 1t was during
the hearing on the rule that Andrews
and Downs testified that the alleged
shortage to date in the clerks office
had reached a total Of SIC, 1883, OF
which S62 ,62990 represents delinquent
tax collections for the county from
1920, when Duncan first took office.
Duncan's attorneys had asked Judge
Mccarthy to permit Deputy Clerk
Ralph Remington to administer the af-
fairs of the office until the former was
able to appear in court, but Common
wealths Attorney Douglas objected,
claiming that while he had every con-
fidence in Remington's ability and in
tegrity, the matter was one OF policy
and should be settled.