Evening star., 1938-09-08
DISMISSAL ASKED
Of HINES CHARGE
IN POLICY RACKET
Conspiracy Count Against
District Tammany Chief
Declared Unproven.
DEFENSE COUNSEL SAYS
EVIDENCE INSUFFICIENT
Declares Client Was Not Master
Mind in Operations of
Dutch Schultz.
Ev the Associated Press

Sv the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, Sept. 8.-Defense
counsel today urged dismissal of con-
spracy charges against James j.
Hines, 6l-year-old Tammany district
leader, asserting that even on the basis
OF the States accusations Mr.. Hines
was only "one of the players on the
team'-not a master mind" of the
$50 900, ,000a-year Dutch Schultz
policy racket.
BY this legal strategy, Lloyd Paul
Stryker. Hines attorney. sought to pre-
vent the four-week-old trial from
reaching the blue ribbon" jury.
Mr.. Stryker asked Justice Ferdinand
Pecora for dismissal of the indictment
in 27-page typewriter brief He cited
three major legal points in moving
that the l3 counts in the indictment
against Mr.. Hines be thrown out.
Cites Cases in Support.
He also cited SO cases in support of
MS thesis. and in pre-court inter-
view. the booming voiced defense law
yer was emphatic in stating that it
was no mere defense tactic" of a
routine. formal nature, but that he
sincerely believed the case should be
quashed "on the law and the facts"
District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey
has indicated that in contrast to the
three hours Mr.. Stryker said he would
require for oral argument on his brief,
the prosecution would only need
about IS minutes" to answer it,
The State rested late yesterday after
climaxing its maze of circumstantial
evidence with testimony that Mr.
Hines, An alleged political "fxer" for
the Schultz mob, attempted to save
the Dutchman" from being pushed
around" by police in Troy, N. Y, and
that Mr.. Hines agreed to look into the
pending appointment of Mr.. Dewey as
a special rackets prosecutor in 1885.
In his legal challenge to the case,
Mr.. Stryker declared that. even adopt
ing the States assumption that Mr..
Hines was an accessory, his client
could not be tried for conspiracy with
in the definition of the law.
Chief Contentious.
Mr.. Stryker's major contentious
were:
!. That counts 2 to 13 in the in
dlctment. covering felonies. should be
dismissed because the evidence failed
to prove that Mr. Hines 'coritrived or
assisted in contriving lottery within
the meaning of section 1872 of the
penal laws.
z. That the prosecution failed to
establish that the alleged offenses were
committed within the statutory period
OF limitations, pointing out that the
nrst count was misdemeanor with
two-year statutory limitation.
3. That the people failed to prove
the alleged conspiracy.
Mr.. Stryker argued that if Mr.. Hines
were being tried for corruption or OBJ
structing justice, the case might Justly
be submitted to the jury.
Since the charge does not come
within that category" he continued.
the entire indictment should be dis
missed"
Prosecutor Dewey also submitted a
brief to Justice Pecora, insisting that
the evidence proved the conspiracy:
that Mr.. Hines was one of the con-
spirators, and that all 13 counts were
valid.
Mr.. Dewey declared that the States
evidence was remarkably direct in its
nature and "conclusively stamps the
defendant, Hines, and the other con-
spirators named during the trial as
members of the numbers combination"
operated by Dutch Schultz.
Mr.. Deweys brief covered 26 pages
and cited as many cases as the de-
tense.
Refers to Courts.
Mr.. Stryker argued: 1T is perfectly
apparent that our appellate courts
have uniformly stated that distinc-
ton exists between policy and lottery
He claimed that since Mr. Hines was
indicated on lottery charges, whereas
the illicit Schultz gambling syndicate
was policy or numbers game" enter
prise, the case should be dismissed.
If Pompez, 1son, etc." he said, re-
ferring to Alexander Pompez, Joe
"Spasm" Ison and other Harlem policy
bankers in the Schultz-controled
racket "were not guilty of contriving
q lottery, in the operation of their
policy banks. then by no method of
reasoning could it be said that the de-
fendant (Hines) was implicated in
contriving a lottery"
Mr.. Stryker's argument was almost
identical with the theory advanced
earlier by j. Richard Dixie Davis,
the kid mouthpiece" of the Schultz
mob.
While prisoner in the Tombs after
his capture in Philadelphia hideout
last February, Davis, disbarred at
tOrnov Soid he UaS confident ho c0l,ld