Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 May 1910 — TEN ARRESTS FOR BRIDGE GRAFT [ARTICLE]

TEN ARRESTS FOR BRIDGE GRAFT

Result of Grand Jury Action Made Public Yesterday. COMMISSIONERS ARRESTED Also On Affidavit of Prosecutor Longwell In Connection With C. L. Bader, Charged With Altering Figures In Bid On Milroy Tp. Bridge From $1,240 to $1,400. —Six Indictments Against Bader Personally.— Defendants Released On S3OO Bond In Each Case.

Sheriff L. P. Shirer made his yesterday in six of the eight indictments returned by the grand jury at-its recent session and also on the affidavit filed by Prosecutor Longwell, mention of which was made in The Democrat last week. The six indictments are all against Clinton L. Bader, superintendent and general manager of the Winamac Bridge Co., and charge him with presenting a false claim in. each count, the amounts of such alleged false claims being set out specifically. ■ The charges are based, we understand, on the allegations that the bridges mentioned were jiot up to specifications and that when’ th? claims were presented for the full amount Mr. Bader was guilty of presenting a false claim. The evidence on which tlje indictments were returned is understood to have been furnished by Prof. Smith, • head of the mechanical engineering department of Purdue University, who was employed by Prosecutor Longwell to, make -measurements of the bridges and compare them with the specifications on which the contracts

were let. Mr. Bader was arrested on each count and gave bond for S3OO in each case with S. A. March and John Austes of Winamac, and Geo. A. Williams of Rensselaer, as sureties. The affidavit filed by the Prosecutor charges the alteration of a public document. to-wit: the bid of Winamac Bridge Cor, on the' Milroy tp.. bridge on which Mr. Bader was recently convicted of having.filed a false claim, the evidence showing that the bridge had been scaled down seven tons in weight from the dimensions given in the plans and specifications. This affidavit charges Bader and all three of the County Commissioners with collusion inraising said bid from $1,240 to $1,400, and after setting out the bid in full, says: “That said public record and bia was then and there defaced and altered in /his, to-wit: that the figures and signs $1,240.00 were then and there erased and altered by them and there writing in their place ana stead the signs and figures /following, to-wit: $1,400.00, with the unlawful, felonious and fraudulent intent and purpose Then and there upon the part of said Clinton L. Bader, Fred Waymire, John F. Pettet and Charles Denham, to cheat and defraud a. certain body* politic, to-wit: Jasper County aforesaid, in the sum of one hundred and sixty dollars ($160.00), contrary to the form of the statute in such cases made and provided and against the peace and dignity Of the state Of Indiana.” ./The Commissioners and Bader have each been arrested on this charge and gave bond in the sum of S3OO, with the same bondsmen as in Mr. Bader’s case, and Judson L. Adams as surety on the bdnd of Fred Waymire; John ’W. Cavinder on bond of John F. Pettet and William Townsend on bond of Charles T. Denham. All the cases of course go over to the September term of the Jasper circuit court for . further action. The penalty on conviction of having filed a false claim is imprisonment in the state prison not less than two nor more than fourteen years and a fine of not less than ten nor more than, one thousand dollars. The penalty on conviction of

altering or defacing a public record, etc., is the same. (See Acts 1905, page 750). ' ,