Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 78, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1919 — FORMER STARKE COUNTY AUDITOR SERVING SENTENCE. [ARTICLE]

FORMER STARKE COUNTY AUDITOR SERVING SENTENCE.

Lee M. Ransbottom, former auditor of Starke county, who realized something like SIO,OOO from the sale of worthless gravel road bonds and in one of these transaction defrauded Mrs. Grace B. Law of Crawsfordsville, Ind. out of half that amount entered a plea of guilty to the charge of obtaining money under false pretenses before Judge West in the Montgomery circuit court a few days ago, and was promptly fined SSOO and sentenced to prison for a term of 1 to 7 years. Ransbottom is well remembered by many of the residents of this community, who also remember the incident which caused his arrest. A second case, in which the defendant was charged with perjury, was dismissed. He was on his way to the penitentiary at Michigan City within a few hours after the sentence was pronounced, and *is now serving his sentence in that institution. It will be recalled that some Starke county gravel road bonds, which could not be sold because the rate of interest was deemed too low, were ordered canceled and new bonds issued. Ransbottom was auditor at the time, but instead of destroying the old bonds, he stuck them in a pigeonhole. Later, after he had left office, he sold the bonds.