The Washington times., 1933-04-26
STATE MAY ASK
INDICTMENTS s
DISMISSAL
Defense to Insist on Full Hear
ing; Mother and Wife
Will Be Present
COURTROOM, SAN FRAN

COURTROOM, SAN FRAN
CISCO, April rs U.N.SD.
Mounted police, swinging clubs,
drove several hundred Tom
Mooney sympathizerS from
Portsmouth Square today as,
across the street, defense and
prosecution came to court for
another chapter in the famous
Mooney cas-.
SAN FRANCISCO, April 26
U.N. SO.-The case of Tom
Mooney was to find its way into
court here again today in a bizarre
legal tangle.
Superior Judge Louis H. Ward
faces the strange situation of the
defendant demanding trial on an
Indictment for murder, while the
prosecution seeks to clear him OF
the accusation through a dismissal
of the indictment.
Although District Attorney Mat
thew Brady and his assistants re-
fuse to outline their plans, they
are expected to renew their petit
tion for a dismissal as their first
move.
Defense Demands Trial
And MONEYS staff of attor-
neys, led by Frank P. Walsh, of
New York, and John P. Finerty,
Washington, D. c., is expected to
battle just as strongly for full
trial in the belief that an ac-
Quittal will give them lever on
Governor James Rolph, jr., for a
pardon and perhaps furnish them
with grounds for an appeal to the
United States Supreme Court in
case Rolph again refuses pardon,
The indictment is one Of eight
returned against Mooney after
the 1915 Preparedness Day parade
bombing here in which ten per
sons were killed. Mooney was
convicted on one count, six were
dismissed, but one lay dormant
through the years.
While the court and attorneys
cleared the legal battle ground
for action, the defendant was still
pairing potatoes in San Quentin
prison, where he is serving life
sentence, eyeing a new blue civil.
ian suit, turned out by prison
tailors, and hoping that he will
be brought to court here tomor-
row.
Final Plans Discussed
Walsh had a final conference
with Mooney late yesterday at
San Quentin prison. He declined
to discuss the nature of the con-
ference other than to say that
final plans for the trial had been
discussed.
Walsh would venture no predic.
tion on the outcome of the trial.
Like a shadow over the whole
proceedings loomed John O'Gara,
a militant former assistant dis
trict attorney, bent on stopping
the trial because "the only issue
at stake has been adjudicated."
He threatens to file a petition
with the State Supreme Court
for a writ of mandate ordering
Judge Ward to dismiss the indict-
ment if the trial proceeds.
Legal authorities anticipate
that Brady, or his assistants, will
renew their petition for a dis
missal-once denied-and if de.
MED again will either
Take a petition before the
State Supreme Court justices
asking that Judge Ward be
forced by mandate to dismiss
the indictment, or-present
merely the corpus delecti-evi-
dence of the death of the man
named in the indictment-and
rest their case.
Brady has gone on record as
approving a pardon for Mooney
on the ground that he was con-
victed on perjured evidence and
has said that the present trial
will be farce" inasmuch as
he has mo confidence" in the
evidence or witnesses at his COM
mand.
If the trial gets by all its
early legal entanglements, the
defense will press a motion for
Subpoenas for numerous wit
neSseS, including Warren K.
Billings, MONEYS co-defendant,
now in Folsom Prison, and John
Macdonald, an itinerant waiter
from Baltimore.
Walsh insists that he and his
associates have "come to San
Francisco to try the case and
intend to try it," while Brady and
his staff declare:
"What we do will depend on
what disposition is made Of
various legal questions by the
court"
Among the interested specta-
tors-and a great crowd is ex-
pected, including a labor jury"
sitting unofficially-probably will
be Mrs. Mary Mooney, the de-
fendant's 84-year-old mother, and
his wife, Mrs. Rena Mooney, who
stood trial with him but was &C.
quilted.
Police were prepared to quell
any demonstrations, and Mooney
has appealed to his followers not
to jeopardize his cause by pecom-
S~a~ avnohr0ilaJ with tho ont horifioc