The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, June 28, 1933, Page 2

THE BISMARCK TRIBUNE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 1938 CONTINUE Jp ee Offers Defense in of bookkeeping involving so much] cent per year, he said, while interest . pn the loan from the Bank of North Gammons suggested to Shafer, then] Dakota was only five and three- attorney general, that a proper book-j quarters per cent. An excess or keeping method be set up. Shafer at| “profit” resulted, Gammons said, and that time had bright prospects of be-| the legislature in 1927 set aside a Embezzlement Case} coming the next governor, the attor-|fund for the military history from ney said. Gammons suggested that| this excess. Not all of the military Wiemarck certificate of deposit show- | Mrs, Gammons be employed to do the, history fund was placed on ¢. d., he ing Gammons had deposited $600 in]work, declaring that she was compe- said. this account Aug. 19, 1931; First Na-|tent for such a task. He could have tional Bank ledger sheet for Aug. 19, 1981; First National Bank receipt Mrs. Gammons spent full time on hired her without consulting the com-| her work for the first nine months mission, Sullivan said, but he talked it}@nd part time for the next seven lover with the commission because he|™onths on the job, receiving $175 Gammons had made a with | 414 'not want the administration to be|for the full-time and $100 a month showing drawal of $226.82 on Dec. 31, 1932, and criticized on a charge of nepotism.| for the part-time, Gammons said. Gammon’s signature card at the First |i." aico talked the proposition over} When she completed her work she National Bank. still had about $85 due her. It was SEE an ied to identify and in-|"ith Kitchen. ‘They agreed that Meg, | SUll had show #6 Ue ee Tt he terpret the instruments were Theo-|Gammons should be employed at $175) ceferred until interest payments came tae W. Sette, William H, Bement|® month, Shafer declaring that any- due, he said. When interest pay- and George W. Janda of the Bank|0ne informed on the matter could not| rents were received, regular vouch- of North Dakota, and L. P. Warren Challenge successfully Mrs. Gammons’ .,-'r ner salary were made out and and Frank E. Shepard of the First|Competency. he cashed the cashier's checks, pay- National Bank. Deputy Secretary of| Though the law of 1927 setting aside! i hor from his own account. These State Charles Liessman testified that|the military history tund_ made BO Ganehers, he said, were filed with Gammons was secretary of the in-| Provision for putting the fund on C.'tne records of the industrial com- dustrial commission on Aug. 17, 1931./4-. Gammons suggested that work of| mission in the usual fashion and re- State Rests Suddenly Sullivan's motion for a directed verdict followed on the heels of compiling the history would take! corded in a book for that pu: |probably four years, making it possible | Cnded Jn # Books fon Wat Pine c,d. alfor the industrial commission to put| was reduced to $10,000 and the in- sudden announcement by Attorney | the money on c. d. to draw interest, | terest cut to two and one-half per General A. J. Gronna that the state|/from which pay for Mrs. Gammons| cent, The last interest payments, Tested. Among arguments presented by Sullivan in behalf of his motion were charges that the case, as presented by the state, was insufficient; that there was no evidence showing that Gammons was not entitled to use the) funds as he did; that as secretary of the commission he was subject to direction and order by the commis- sion; that there was no evidence showing he did ‘not act in full ac- cordance with some lawful order of the commission; that there was no| evidence showing the fund was a) public fund, that it ever belonged to the state of North Dakota, or that it did not belong to the Bank of North Dakota; that there was noth- ing in the military history fund law permitting the $20,000 to be deposited on certificate of deposit and that the circumstantial evidence presented by sion. He also was in favor of the plan Gammons conferred with the late; He said he could remember making Cc. R. Green, then manager of the} one cash payment of $500 to her, and Bank of North Dakota, and learned} declared that he did not now have that the bank would accept $20,000 on! any of the canceled checks which he c. d. at 3 per cent interest per annum, | had made out to her. which would provide $600 a year. ‘Three of these annual interest pay-j| to the military ‘history fund in July, ments were drawn, Sullivan said, but| 1927, he said, and another similar the fourth did not materialize because | amount was turned over a “couple of the history was completed before the; months later.” He also testified to a fourth year expired. Approached on the proposal, Mrs. end of 1927. Gammons said she would not accept eculd be taken. The industrial com-| he said, in his memory were for $225 mission appropration made no pro-/ and $125. Sometimes he paid Mrs. vision for such a salary, Sullivan said.!Gammons in cash, other times by Conferred With Fraser Gammons also talked the proposal Hig; over with G. Angus Fraser, then adju- tant general, who was to have charge | sistant Attorney General Milton K. jling the history under the| Higgins, Gammons said vouchers check. gins Cross-Examines Under cross-examination by As- made out for Mrs. Gammons’ salary totaled in the neighborhood of $1,875. The first $5,000 was turned over transfer of “some $26,000” near the On April 1, 1929, he said under the state could all be true without) tne position unless the industrial com-|cross-examination, Mrs. Gammons showing that the defendant was!mission adopted a formal resolution| returned to the employ of the motor guilty of embezzlement. favoring the plan. Her idea, Sullivan vehicle registrar at a salary of $190 Sullivan also renewed his objections | <iq, was to prevent the possibility of | @ month. She was doing the bulk of te three of the state's exhibits. On however, the ledger sheet of Aug. 1 e, her special work at her home but {nepotism charges. Mae 2 made “frequent” calls te the indus- 9, 1931, from the First National bank,| Gammons then dictated such 1 +ria1 commission office while estab- ‘was admitted as evidence by the resolution, setting out her salary as lishing the new set-up. court. Judge Jansonius still with-|$175 a month (which was approxi- In 1924, he said, he was authorized held decision on the other two, which| mately the same as she had been re-!),. an industrial. commission resolu- ‘were pages in the Bank of North ceiving as an employe of the state MO-| tion to “hire, fire and pay” employes Dakota cashier's check register. Sul livan's objections to these was that|E.) McGuiness, his stenographer. This they were immaterial and irrelevant resolution was submitted to the com- -]tor vehicle registrar) to Mrs. (Carrie| oF the commission. Entries in the book listing vouchers in view of the fact that they did not|mission at a meeting late in June, were made by him personally, in his relate directly to the transaction in-|1928, and was signed by Shafer and|own handwriting, Gammons said. volved in the trial. He said the de-|Kitchen, as well as Gammons as sec- Bitter argument developed when fense did not expect to “review sev-|retary. Mrs. Gammons counter- Higgins asked Gammons about an eral years of banking records.” To Present Full Story In his opening statement to the signed it. A few days iater Mrs. Gam- $829 deposit made by him in 1927. mons began on the work. Sullivan leaped to his feet immediate- Situation Is Reviewed {ly, objecting to the question on the jury, Sullivan said that he was| Called to the stand, Gammons gave |Stounds that it was “immaterial. and 4 to let the “mater stand as|a brief resume of the soldiers’ bonus / ‘relevant, not relating to the trans- it is” but that he wanted to present|plan and military history fund. In| #ction involved in this case. “If this the full story of the defendant. Gam-|1919, he said, the state legislature | @uestion is permitted,” he shouted to mons, he said, would waive his con-| passed a bill providing for a one-mill |Judge Jansonius, “we might just as atitutional right of not being exam-|ievy, which would produce about $1,-| Well open up the records clear back ined and would take the stand to tell|000,000 annually, for the soldiers’/*0 1924 and begin a systematic review the “entire story.” In his brief resume of the defen: story, Sullivan said that up until 1928|for service in the World War. the industrial commission, under Gammons’ direction, had conducted|claims, the commission borrowed of all transactions. We can carry this case through the summer under that procedure.” Judge Orders Recess At this point Judge Jansonius called bonus fund. Under the law, ex-serv- se|icemen were allowed $25 per month To speed up payment of these an “immense business” in the pur-| $400,000 from the Bank of North Da-|a recess until 9 a. m. Friday and called chase of outstanding claims against|kota and in 1924 started discounting] the attorneys into consultation. Point- the soldiers’ bonus fund. The volume] soldier borius claims. The commis-|ing out that there must be some lim- of this business exceeded $1,750,000,|sion received 13,000 claims involving it to how far the state can go in re- he said. Clerical hire was not such] $4,500,000, he said. ferring to other cases to prove intent, descriptions of laws which the assist- ant attorney general said upheld his contention that the question was per- the court accepted the page in ques- tion as evidence but ruled out the checks a8 supplementary and imma- missible. The judge said he would| terial. like to review the law in the matter before ruling on the objection. At the opening of his_ testimony, Gammons testified that he was 45 years old, had spent most of his life in North Dakota, had lived in Bis- marck since 1922 and was associated with the industrial commission from. July, 1923, until Jan. 10, 1933. Throughout the afternoon Shafer was an interested auditor of the pro- ceedings but Kitchen, though he was in the city, did not appear in the court room. In this particular action, Gammons is charged with embezzling $600. He has pleaded not guilty to four counts, pe tad total embezzlement of over $1,600. Continues on Stand Gammons continued on the wit- ness stand Wednesday forenoon and was cross-examined rigorously by Higgins. He testified that figures in the military history account, contained in a book offered as an exhibit, had een erased and new figures entered. Efforts were made by the state to enter the entire book containing the military history account as a state exhibit, but, following objections by Sullivan, only the pages referring to this account were permitted to be entered. Higgins devoted much of the morn- ing to questions regarding the items entered in the book containing the military history account. Asked to identify some of the fig- ures, Gammons said items had been erased and new figures put in. “We never had such a record,” he said. “I can hardly read the figures.” In reply to a question as to whether he would testify the record was not in its present condition when he left office, Gammons said “I certainly do.” In all, 31 new exhibits were offered in evidence by the state Wednesday forenoon, only 14 of which were ac- cepted. The 17 which were refused by the court were checks supplemen- tary to the military history book ac- count. Tuesday 12 exhibits had been offered, 10 of which were accepted. New Instruments Presented Included in the new exhibits Wed- nesday forenoon were the military history account book, an annual re- port by Gammons,. and a series of bank instruments relating to c. d.’s of $142,950 and $252,000 and cashier's checks of $1,736.23, $2,000 and $240.78. To each of the bank instruments Sullivan repeated his objections, as- serting they were “immaterial and ir- relevant and not relating to the case in question.” Judge Jansonius over- ruled the objections in each instance, saying that they were proper “with- in bounds” to establish the practices of Gammons while in office. The pages of the military history account book, which were accepted as evidence, covered periods from Jan. 1, 1931, to Oct. 28, 1931; from Nov. 1, 1931, to July 30, 1932; and from Aug. 1, 1932, to Feb. 1, 1933. Gammons testified that entries aft- er Oct. 26, had been changed in the exhibit covering Aug. 1, 1932, to Feb. 1, 1933. The state then produced checks purported to check against the entries on this particular page and after examination Gammons said the figures on the checks corresponded to the figures in the book and that he : Had Joint Accounts Higgins then examined Gammons at length concerning his private accounts in the First National Bank and the Dakota National Bank and Trust com- pany of Bismarck. Gammons testi- fied that at times he and his wife maintained joint accounts, with both privileged to issue checks against em. Then came presentation of the Bank of North Dakota instruments, all of which were accepted by the court but which Sullivan claimed were “irrelevant, immaterial and not relat- ing to the case in question.” In arguments as to entering exhibits regarding the military history ac- counts, Higgins said it was the state’s purpose to show that the record did not contain any reference or entry of voucher showing payment to Mrs. Gammons, but contains reference to all other vouchers. This brought a retort from Sulli- van that testimony already had been given that Mrs. Gammons’ payment was not entered on the military his- tory account, but in the industrial commission account. He objected that the exhibits were “complicating the situation.” He added that the defense and prosecution agreed that Mrs. Gammons’ payment was not en- tered in the book offered as an ex- hibit. Question Is Withdrawn Gammons, under cross-examina- tion at the end of Tuesday after- noon’s session, had been asked about a@ deposit of $829 made by him in 1927. . Sullivan objected and a ruling was to be given by Judge Fred Jan- sonius Wednesday. Higgins, however, withdrew the question as the trial resumed Wednesday morning. Question by Higgins, Gammons said the minute book of the indus- trial commission and other records had been destroyed in the capitol building fire Dec. 28, 1930. Before the fire separate books were kept for the various accounts of the industrial and securities commissions, Gammons said, but after the fire these accounts were kept in two books, one of which contained the industrial commission account, and the other all other accounts. The $600 item which Gammons testified was paid to Mrs. Gammons for spe- cial work was entered in the indus- trial commission account, said. Higgins inquired about an account known as the “1919 prior account,” which Gammons said was used as a miscellaneous account from which expenditures could be made for pay- ing extra expenses that could not be properly met from the regular indus- trial commission appropriation. Farm Managers Will Tour Twin City Area Fargo, N. D., June 28.—()—Mem- bers of the Northwest Farm Managers association will leave Wednesday from all sections of the state and other parts of the northwest to congregate in the evening in Minneapolis, pre- paratory to the annual summer tour, this year in the vicinity of the Twin Cities, Officials of the Minnesota Farm Managers association have arranged There isn’t a woman io town who should miss this B. I. Sale, “fo matter how large or how small her dress allowance may be. In 2 season of remarkable sales, this one is outstanding. Every popular fashion, every wanted size and color, every summer fabric. DRESSES Sar grat. $10:87 PURE SILK CHIFFON | Ld that would permit a proper method} The discount amounted to six per!the judge asked Higgins to present) was satisfied they were correct. Here‘ the tour. ) See { rat A d up there Cat the Top of the Rge ? 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