Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 May 1911 — WITNESSES FOR DEFENSE HEARD [ARTICLE]

WITNESSES FOR DEFENSE HEARD

State’s Evidence in Nye Bribery Case Is All In. BLOT CRAWFORD’S CHARACTER No Testimony Is Presented Connecting State Printer width Vote-Sell-ing in Adams County, as Was Hinted. Columbus, 0., May 26. —The defense in the trial of Representative Nye of Pike county on the charge of soliciting a oribe placed on the stand a number of witnesses to impeach the character of the prosecuting witness, State Printer E. A. Crawford. The state has completed the presentation of its evidence. These included men who had been connected with Crawford in politics and also Ellis Rhoades, a Brown county farmer. They testified that the reputation of Crawford for veracity was not of the best. Rhoades, among others, asserted that he wouldn’t believe Crawford under oath. He was forced, however, to admit that his enmity toward Crawford was due to a debt he owed the state printer andl that Crawford had won a law suit against him. Probate Judge Cableman of Pike ’county, w’ho testified that he had been a friend of Dr. Nye several years; Edward Donavan, also of Pike county, a deputy fire marshal, and Otha Blake of Adams county were others whose evidence reflected upon Crawford’s character.

Nothing was brought out connecting Crawford with Adams county vote selling corruption, as was intimated, the previous day in questions directed at Crawford while on the stand. Judge Kinkead then barred the questions and followed up the ruling with a Second one to the same effect Representative B. F. Kimball, whose gerrymander bill is alleged to have been the basis of the Nye bribery charges, testified that Dr. Nye came to his seat in the state house one cay and said that for SI,OOO the gerrymander “could be put over.” Kimball’s memory failed him when pressed with questions on many points. T. C. Coyle of Spencerville, formed bill clerk in the senate, testified that Nye told him on April 28 that a certain man could be approached on the Bebhart canal bill, “if he (Coyle) had the money.” “If you get the money we can kill the bill,” was Dr. Nye’s further statement, according to Coyle. In the senate investigation consid*erable time was taken up by lawyers Arguing in a justice court over the arrest of two editors and an attorney who refused to testify before the committee. Chairman Todd of the committee said that the Ohio press was venal.