Читать книгу "The System," As Uncovered by the San Francisco Graft Prosecution - Franklin Hichborn - Страница 14

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The indictments against Schmitz and Ruef were returned November 15. Schmitz reached San Francisco on his return from Europe on November 29.[133] He at once joined with Ruef in the fight to prevent the issue raised by his indictment being presented to a trial jury.

The two defendants were to have been arraigned on December 3, but at their earnest solicitation arraignment[134] was continued until December 6.

On that day the plans of the defendants became apparent. It was seen that they would divide the defense, demanding separate trials; and it was quite as evident that their first move would be an attack upon the validity of the Grand Jury.

Attorneys Frank C. Drew and John J. Barrett appeared for Schmitz, while Ruef was represented by Samuel M. Shortridge and Henry Ach. At the close of the proceedings, Ach asked that subpoenas be issued for the members of the Grand Jury to appear in court the following Monday to testify for the defendants. This meant the examination of the Grand Jurors for bias. The long technical fight to disqualify the Grand Jury had opened.[135]

In the attack upon the Grand Jury, Joseph C. Campbell joined with Schmitz’s attorneys, Drew and Barrett, while Frank J. Murphy and Charles H. Fairall appeared with Shortridge and Ach for Ruef. Ach, in moving to set aside or quash the indictments, stated that the motion was made for Schmitz and Ruef jointly, but that the defendants reserved the right to plead and to be tried separately.

Ach’s motion was based on nineteen counts. The point most insisted upon was that Grand Juror Wallace Wise was disqualified because of his having been on a petty trial jury panel during the current year. Wise, being thus disqualified, Ach argued, the whole indictment failed as much as though the whole nineteen Grand Jurors were disqualified.[136]

Judge Dunne, after a three days’ hearing, swept aside the multitude of technical objections which the various attorneys for the defense had advanced. In particular did he refuse to declare the whole nineteen Grand Jurors disqualified, because of the alleged disqualification of Juror Wise.

The prosecution had gained another point in its fight to bring the defendants to trial on the merits of their cases.

But the attack upon the Grand Jury had scarcely begun. After Judge Dunne’s ruling, the nineteen Grand Jurors were to be put on the stand and examined one by one for bias.[137] The defense went further, and had Rudolph Spreckels up to question him as to his motives in guaranteeing a fund for the investigation of graft conditions.[138] District Attorney Langdon was also placed on the stand to be examined as to his motive in appointing Heney his assistant. He denied most emphatically that he had appointed Heney for the sole purpose of instituting criminal proceedings against Ruef and Schmitz.

The examination of Grand Jurors, prosecutors and citizens lasted from December 17 until January 22. On the last named date, Judge Dunne denied the motion to set aside the indictments for bias. The prosecution had gained another step toward bringing the defendants to trial.

Judge Dunne stated that he was ready to set the cases for trial the next day. But the defendants had another delaying play. They demurred to the indictments. The demurrers were not disposed of until February 18.

In the meantime, the defense had made several complicating moves. The first of these was an application to Judge Graham to have the case against Schmitz transferred from Judge Dunne’s court. At the same time Schmitz surrendered himself to the Sheriff, and applied to the Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus, and a writ of prohibition, setting up the points already raised in Judge Dunne’s court against the indictments. The Supreme Court finally decided against Schmitz.

But there remained another way of having the case transferred from Judge Dunne’s court. The law governing changes of venue could be changed by the Legislature. The 1907 Legislature had convened early in January. A measure was introduced in both Senate and Assembly under the terms of which a defendant in a criminal action was permitted to secure a transfer of his case from one court to another by merely filing affidavit of his belief that he could not get fair trial in the court in which his case was pending.[139] The measure was known as the “Change of Venue Bill.” Its chief supporter in the Legislature was George B. Keane.

Keane was not only clerk of the Board of Supervisors, but he was a member of the State Senate representing a San Francisco district. Keane championed the “Change of Venue Bill.”[140] The measure passed the Assembly, but failed of passage in the Senate. Ruef in his efforts to escape trial before Judge Dunne had lost again.

Early in February, when the efforts of Schmitz and Ruef to evade trial were being pressed the hardest, agitation against the Japanese gave Schmitz opportunity not only to absent himself from the State, thus bringing the proceedings so far as they applied to him, to a standstill, but to restore his prestige. Schmitz was quick to avail himself of the situation.

The question of admitting Japanese to California schools was then under consideration at Washington. A request was extended the San Francisco Board of Education, through California Congressmen, that the members of the board go to Washington for conference with the government authorities. Members of the board held consultation with Schmitz, after which word was circulated about the State that in defense of the public schools against the Japanese, Schmitz must, on behalf of San Francisco and California, go to Washington.

A telegram was received from Congressman Julius Kahn, a close supporter of Ruef and Schmitz, who represented a San Francisco district in Congress, stating that “at the request of the President and Secretary of State we ask you to come here immediately for a conference with them and the California delegation.”

Schmitz started for Washington on February 3.[141] He was absent from San Francisco until March 6. He did not, however, as had been predicted, return amid popular acclaim. The outcome of the Washington negotiations was not satisfactory to California. There was popular belief that the Mayor’s mission had failed. At the State line Schmitz received the startling word that Ruef was a fugitive from justice; that Sheriff O’Neil had failed to discover the fugitive’s whereabouts and had been disqualified. During the month of his absence from San Francisco, the Mayor was soon to learn, events of tremendous importance to himself and to his administration had occurred.