Evening star., 1947-11-30
Trial Board Due
To Take0athin in
MurphyCase
Swearing in Expected
By Thursday in Action
Against Fire Chief
By Newbold Moves, Jr.

By Newbold Noyes, Jr.
The trial board of three laymen
which is to hear charges that Fire
Chief Clement Murphy has de-
moralized his department probably
will be sworn in Wednesday or
Thursday.
It is hoped that formal charges In
the case will be ready late this week,
that the trial of the fire chief can
begin within 10 days thereafter and
that the trial can be finished before
January /.
Formal recognition of the trial
board appeared last night to await
only the return to Washington Of
William P. MacCracken, jr., men,
ber of the panel named by the Com
missioners. He is in Chicago over
the week end. and will visit st.
Louis before returning to the capital
Wednesday.
Swearing In Delayed.
Austin F. Garfield, chairman OF
the trio, said he will call the board
together as soon as Mr.. MacCracken
gets back to town. The group then
will appear before Inspector Glenn
ent Cox, chief clerk of the Police
Department, for swearing-in cere-
monies, Mr.. Garfield said.
Inspector Cox, whose illness last
week delayed the swearing in. told .
reporter he would be ready this week
to proceed whenever the three board
members appeared before him.
Once the board has been sworn.
it will be ready to receive specific
charges against Chief Murphy now
being prepared by Daniel B. Maher,,
special assistant corporation coun-
sci.
Charges Made June II.
These charges grow out Of state
ment made by Fire Capt. Joseph w,
Conroy before House District
subcommittee last June II that
throughout his administration, Chief
Murphy has contributed nothing
but decentralization" to the depart
ment.
When Mr.. Garfield, Mr.. Mac
Cracken and Jospeh A. Wilmer, third
member of the board, appear be-
fore Inspector Cox, it will be their
second attempt to be sworn in. They
called Wednesday at the office OF
Godfrey M. Thornett. secretary to
the Board of Commissioners, ex-
pecting to take the oath.
At the last moment, however. 1t
was discovered that Inspector Cox,
rather than Mr.. Thornett, was the
proper official for the function. The
police clerk was sick in bed
Corporation Counsel Vernon E..
West suggested Friday to the Com
missioners that in view of the con-
fusion. and in view of the fact that
Fire Department regulations con-
tain no specific provision for trial
board proceeding such as this. they
might wish to amend those regula-
tions to provide for special trial
board to hear charges against the
Fire Chief.
Step Held Unnecessary.
The Commissioners decided. how
ever, that such step was unneces-
sary, and Mr.. West later told re-
porters there was no serious doubt
in his mind about the legality OF
the proposed procedure in the Muir
ply case.
Trial board members are UNDER
stood to be anxious to complets
their hearing of the case in De-
cember. Courts in the District vir-
tually shut down between Decern-
ber 18 and January /. The more
the trial can be kept from running
into the new year. the less the two
lawyers on the board will be forced
to interrupt their court schedules.
Mr.. Garfield said yesterday he
had not discussed the question with
his colleagues, but he believed 1t
would be proper for the group to
follow procedures of the Police Trial
Board, as was suggested by the
Commissioners in their order set
Clng up this group.
If that is done, the theoretical
schedule of operations will be as
follows:
When Mr.. Maher presents his
charges to the board, a copy will be
served on Chief Murphy.
No Challenge Planned.
The chief then will have two days
in which to challenge any member
of the panel with whose qualifica-
tions he is not satisfied. Mr.. Maher
also will have this right.
There follows a five-day period
in which the defense may file with
the board any motions, interim
proceedings or the like which it
may wish to.
After these have been disposed
Of, the case will be ready for trial as
soon as the defense Is prepared.
Martin F. ODonoghue, Chief
Murphy's attorney, said yesterday
he has no intention of challenging
any beard member. The group, he
said. is entirely satisfactory" As
to the filing of preliminary motions,
he said he has none in mind now
although some might be suggested
by the nature Of the formal charges
when these are received from Mr.,
Maher.
Mr.. O'Donoghue stressed the de-
fense has no intention of delaying
the prOceedinps
Anxious to Get Trial Over.
1--WE are as anxious as anybody to
gee this thing to trial and over
with he said. I'VE will try to get
ready III week, and we almost
certainly will not need more than
10 days
Capt. Conroy last spring detailed
his charge against Chief Murphy
for the Commissioners. They then
turned his statement over to the
corporation counsel's office for an
investigation and report.
The report, approximately 100
pages OF findings supported by 600
pages of documentary evidence, was
turned over to Mr.. Maher when he
took charge of the case November
II. Since then, he has been at
tempting to extract from 1t material
c1YrrNr+inu Tonf rorroy'e oviyi,, II