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The Atlanta Journal,

Thursday, 28th May 1914,

PAGE 2, COLUMN 1.

Rogers, Whitfield, and Tedder Each Fined $100 and Held for State

Three more Burns agents were heavily fined in the Recorder's Court Wednesday afternoon and bound over to the state courts charged with operating as private detectives without the proper legal authority. The men arraigned Wednesday were W. W. (Boots) Rogers, L. C. Whitfield, and Carlton C. Tedder, and they were fined $100 and costs each and bound over to the state courts under $200 bonds each. Tuesday afternoon Dan S. Lehon, chief aide of William J. Burns, was fined $100 and costs and bound over under a $500 bond on the same charge.

The cases against two of the six Burns men arrested by the city police were dismissed Wednesday. They were C. E. Sears, local manager, and W. D. Mc Worth. Sears had a license from the police, and it has been forfeited because of his employment of the other men; consequently, the alternative penalty of a fine in the Recorder's Court was not imposed. Mc Worth proved to the satisfaction of the court that when he started to work as a private detective he was credited to the Pinkerton Agency and properly approved by the police authorities. When he changed from the Pinkertons to the Burns Agency, his permit to operate here was not revoked. Therefore, the case against him was dismissed.

The trials Wednesday afternoon developed two features. Leonard Haas, of counsel for Leo M. Frank, took the witness stand, and testified that he had told Burns, when the detective took the case, that he believed the city detectives had coerced Jim Conley, Nina Formby, and various other witnesses in the famous murder case. Chief of Police J. L. Beavers interrupted the witness by asking, "Did Burns make a report to you showing that he found a police frame-up?" "Yes, he did," quickly answered the attorney. The question and answer were both ruled out by the court as not relevant to the cases on trial.

Chief Beavers later added interest to the trials, when he testified that L. C. Whitfield had asked the permission of the police to operate here, and that he (Beavers) had refused to approve his application because he did not consider Whitfield straight. Whitfield was formerly a Pinkerton man, and he was one of the finders of the famous "bloody stick" in the pencil factory. This was a find which the city police branded as a plant.

Except for the trial of Lehon in the superior court on charges of subornation of perjury, which may not come up for a year or more, the prosecution of the Burns agents here is believed to have ended with the proceedings in the Recorder's Court. While Lehon is under a bond to appear before the Grand Jury as a witness, it is likely that he will be excused by the Solicitor. He will then be at liberty to leave the city and not appear again until his trial for subornation of perjury is called, or until the higher courts dispose of the case tried in the Recorder's Court.

Hearing Postponed on Frank Motion Verdict

The hearing of the motion to set aside the verdict of guilty against Leo M. Frank on the ground that he was not in court when it was rendered, which was set for Friday, has been postponed for a week. Also, an announcement was made by Deputy Sheriff Plennie Minor, Thursday, that the routine session of the Criminal Court, scheduled for next Monday, has been postponed for a week. All jurors and witnesses subpoenaed for Monday are requested to appear Monday week at the courtroom on the first floor of the old City Hall Building.

The postponements of the hearing of the Frank motion and of the routine session of the court have both been occasioned by the engagement during the present week of the entire force of Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey in checking the brief of evidence in the extraordinary motion for a new trial. This work has been completed. Judge B. H. Hill has signed the Bill of Exceptions, and the extraordinary motion is on its way to the Supreme Court. The Solicitor, however, has been forced to neglect his preparation for the motion to set aside, and as a result the delay has been necessitated.

No sessions of the Grand Jury, unless they are called by the Foreman, will be held until the latter part of the next week, because of the engagement of the Solicitor's force.

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