The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-08-05

used as pawns in the game of poli- tics and send these men to prison, while others whose conduct is simi- lar in every respect are allowed their freedom.
 Can you imagine anything more ridiculous than that group of men hatch 8 plan to cheat and defraud the city of Waterbury and start by having & contract entered into in writing in pursuance of vote passed by the board of aldermen. It was like hunting rabbits with a brass band, and can you imagine anything more ridiculous than to have a skilled prosecutor claim that a gigantic plan came into being when that contract was signed, into which 27 men would join to clean up million dollars.
 No Party to Fraud Certainly if Frank Hayes did not profit by this agreement, he was no party to the so-called fraud and the allegation in the information and the claim of the state that the conspiracy stemmed from Frank Hayes and ended with him becomes just empty words-twaddle, that's all, twaddle."
 There was one person, who cor1- cealed, but he is not accused-and that person is Purcell-it was he who testified that he knew of the claimed irregularities in issuing checks and other claimed irregular ities but he concealed them from the board of finance, MT. Lawrence Lewis and Will liam Fitzgerald, the prosecuting offi- cers. It was he who permitted the so-called fraud to continue for eight years-it was he who violated the charter and concealed the fraud If there was a fraud.
 Would You Refuse
 ask you gentlemen if you had performed work or furnished mate- rial for the city of Waterbury and received check in payment, would you refuse to take 1t unless and un- til you looked up the charter and got an opinion from a lawyer that the check was issued in compliance with the charter and Is OK. and even then the lawyer might be wrong of course, you wouldn't make such an Investigation and the law doesn't compel you to so investigate the charter before accepting the check at the risk of being arrested and charged with the crime of cheating and defrauding.
 However, if you were an influen- tial Democrat and accepted the city's check and the game of politics is being played, you may find your- self sitting in a courtroom for seven months while special states attor- ney calls you a thief and robber and the local party machine news paper prints your picture on the front page along with 26 others-a sort of rogues' gallery, and your business would be destroyed, your regulations ruined, your wives ridi- culed and your children laughed to Scorn.
 Got Checks
 Let's be more particular. You have sat here for seven months, have listened and listened and listened, neither the summers sun nor the winters snows have upset your pa- tience or disturbed your health, you have tested the softness of the chairs in which you sit-you cer- tainly are entitled to the compensa- ton you received. You received checks in payment.
 Do you know whether or not the person who signed the checks had authority so to do, or whether the statutory provisions of the state have been compiled with, or whether there was an appropriation to cover or whether the appropriation was exceeded-of course not. You took the checks, cashed them and that's all there is to it. Now let us as- sume that there was no appropria- tion, or that 1t was exceeded, or that the checks were not issued ac- cording to the rules and the regula- tions provided in the statutes, and you had no knowledge of the defi- ciencies.
 Do you think you were guilty of 8 crime in accepting the checks? Of course not-neither are these &C., cused.
 Presumption of Innocence
 Yes, this jury, ladies and gentle men, adhere to this doctrine of pre- sumption of innocence and refuse to convict unless and until guilt has been proven beyond 6 reasonable doubt, then we may be assured that our country is and will continue to be "the land of the free and the home of the brave" and that Hitler ism and Stalinisms can't happen here.
 !. In passing judgment upon Carl Olsen, you must bear in your minds that first, last and always he was a banker: that he was a faithful employe of the Waterbury Trust Company; that his whole life was given to the success of bank for which he worked day in and day out. You must remember that a bank today is a competitive business that no longer does Q bank presi- dent sit behind e mahogany desk. The active man today in bank must be young, smart, well-known with c host of friends. approach able. accommodating. business getter, one who would bring depositors to the bank by application and atten-