Evening star., 1938-04-27
PATH IS CLEARED
FOR D|ETz TRIAL
T0BE ABANDONED
Bench OverruIes Motions to
Give Case Chance in
Appeals Court.
WIRE.TAPPING EVIDENCE
STILL is INADMISSIBLE
Gambling Conspiracy Indictments
Seem Sure to Be Dropped,
Is Opinion.

The way was cleared today for
immediate abandonment of the Jew
Boy" Dietz gambling conspiracy case
when Justice Joseph W. Cox overruled
all pending motions which might have
given the Government a chance to
defend in the United States Court of
Appeals the legality of wire tapping
Without the wire-tapping evidence,
obtained by Treasury Department OPP
eratives and local police through
months of patient work, conviction
admittedly is impossible.
Several months ago, in the Nardone
case, the United States Supreme Court
held that the Federal Communications
Act prohibited evidence based on in
Perception Of interstate telephone calls
Shortly thereafter Justice Cox held
that Congress had intended in the
Communications Act to ban evidence
obtained from interception OF calls
originating in and terminated in the
District of Columbia.
Pines Hope. Dashed.
This meant that unless the ruling by
the local jurist could be reversed in
the Court of Appeals, it was useless
to try Dietz and his 80 co-defendants,
who include five policemen. Several
motions, asking for suppression of
evidence, for further bills of par
ticulars and contesting the validity
of the indictment were pending, how
ever, and United States Attorney Da-
vid A. Pine said the case would not
be dropped as long as a single ave-
hue to the Court of Appeals remained
open. He hoped that Justice Cox
would dispose of at least one of the
various motions in such way that
the Government would be enabled to
ask the Court of Appeals to decide the
legality of intra-District wire tapping
This hope was dashed, however, by
Justice Cox today
Mr.. Pine would not say this morn
ing that he would nolle PROSE- the
case, explaining that he wished to
discuss the matter first with his as
sistant. Roger Robb, in order to make
absolutely certain that all roads to
.the appellate court had been blocked.
1t was generally admitted in other
quarters, however, that formal aban-
donement of the case was 1nevita BILE.
Deitz, who was named also as Abe
Plisco, and his co-defendants were
indicted July last following series
Of IS raids touched off by a foray
against Deitz's Albee Building head
quarters, from which race horse in
formation allegedly was broadcast to
scores of bookmakers.
124 Indicted as Gamers.
Listening over tapped wires, Inter-
nal Revenue Bureau agents traced the
intricate mesh of private wires which
linked the Albee Building offices with
gambling establishments throughout
the city. A total of 124 persons were
indicted on gaming charges at the
time the conspiracy Indictment was
reported.
Most of the true bills, 35 in number,
charged actual violations of the gam
ing statute, and were not affected by
the overlapping ruling, although the
Dietz investigation led to discovery
OF the existence of most of the book
making resorts. Justice Cox's opinion
banning intra-District overlapping
evidence was given after argument of
a motion to quash the Dietz search
warrant and to suppress the evidence
found by the raiders The warrants
were based on evidence obtained over
tapped wires.
Dietz was represented by Attorneys
Harry T. Whelan, William A. GAL
lagher and William O'Connell. Con-
viction of Sam Beard, described as
Dietz's predecessor as car of Wash
ington's book making racket, was OBJ
tanned In 1884 by evidence similar to
that ruled inadmissible in the Dietz
case.
Beard Is now serving a prison term
IN the Federal Penitentiary at Atlanta.