Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 102, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1918 — IRREGULARITIES IN OFFICE [ARTICLE]

IRREGULARITIES IN OFFICE

Township Trustee In Clay County A Confessed Bribe Taker. As a result of an investigation made by the field examiners of the state board of accounts, Carl A. Biller, trustee of Posey township, Clay county, and several township supply men, including E. W. Kiger of Indianapolis of the firm of Kiger & Co., who sell lots of supplies to township trustees over the state, have placed *under arrest on the charge of receiving bribes, con-

spiracy to bribe, etc., and were released on bonds of $3,000 to $5,000 each. Coming so soon after the disclosures of dishonest practices in the offices of the trustees of Jackson and Harrison townships, in the same county, in which George M. Ray and other supply agents in Indianapolis were connected, some two years ago, these arrests have created a sensation in Clay county. According to the Indianapolis News, Biller, it is said, made a confession to the state board of accounts, in which he involved the three Indianapolis men who are under arrest. He said in the confession that on or about January--23, 1318, he met Maurice L. Baker, of the firm of Baker & Co., in Baker's room in the Deming hotel in Terre Haute, and he said he gave Baker an order for school supplies. At the same time, he said, he issued a township warrant for the sum of $339.50, dating the warrant ahead. He said that on the receipt of the warrant, Baker handed to him in money, “as per agreement for receiving said warrant," the sum of $l5O. He said he had received only a part of the goods, but that the warrant had been cashed.

In another part of his confession Biller makes a statement which involves G. W. Gordon, the Indianapolis architect under arrest, and Ralph Knoll of Greencastle, Indiana. It is understood that an affidavit has been issued for Knoll’s arrest, and the Brazil authorities wpre at Greencastle Tuesday afternoon to serve it. Biller, in his confession, says that Knoll, acting as agent for the W. Q. O’Neill Company of Crawfordsville, Indiana, obtained an order from him for iron culverts and that when he settled with Knoll, by paying him with a township warrant for the amount of his claim. Knoll paid him $25 in cash in consideration of the order. This payment, he says, was made in his office at Staunton, Indiana. He also says that Earl Clevenger solicited work of preparation of plans and specifications for a new building for school purposes for Gordon, saying that Gordon would pay him for the favor. He says in his statement that he met Gordon later and that Gordon agreed that if he would give him the work he would give him money. In that part of his confession in which he refers to Earl Kiger, the other Indianapolis man under ar-

rest, Biller says that in December, i 19K. ar Mt January, 1>1«, Kiger handed him Sls because ot a quantity of school he had bought in behalf of Posey township from Kiger 4 Co. He added that in 1514 Knoll, acting as agent for Kiger 4 Co, gave him.-.,f10 for purchases he had made in behalf of the township.- and that a few months later Knoll met him in a restaurant in Brazil and gave him *25. Biller, in another part of his confession, is said to have brought in the names of Ben jamin Cones <■ the National Heatizg and Ventilating cvnpuy of Indianapolis, and Ray Alexander of Muncie, Indiana, who it is said acted as agent for Earl Lu Clevenger, of the Horsier Warming and Ventilating company, also of ; Msnefe- Cones' and Alexglider could not be found today, it is - 'said- '