People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 November 1893 — BANKERS SET FREE. [ARTICLE]

BANKERS SET FREE.

A Milwaukee Judge Bolds That the Grand Jury Was Illegal. Milwaukee, Nov. 8. —Sixty-seven indictments, returned against wellknown Milwaukeeans by the two grand juries which have been investigating the bank and other failures are null and void. This is the result of a decision by Judge Johnson in the circuit court Monday afternoon when he ‘dismissed Eugene S. Elliott and F. VV. Noyes, directors of the defunct Plankinton bank, who had been indicted for embezziement by both the first and second grand juries and who instituted habeas corpus proceedings to secure their release on the last indictments. The indictments which Judge Johnson’s decision has thrown out are as follows: Frank A. Lappen, 14; William Plankinton, 8; F. T. Day, 9; Charles L. Clason, 5; E. S. Elliott, 5; F. W. Noyes, 5: William H. Monsen, 3; John B. Koett'.ng, 10; G. C, Trumpff, 3, and Judge J. G. Jenkins, s—total, 07. The attorneys for the indicted bankers went into court and contended that the indictments found against their clients were null and void because the jury had no legal existence when they were returned—that is, that the term of the jury expired with the September term of the municipal court and that, therefore, the jury had no authority to return indictments on the last day of the October term. Judge Johnson promptly decided in favor of the bankers, saying that it was clear under the statutes that the point made by the defense was well taken and that the jury had no legal existence when it returned the indictment He ordered that the prisoners be discharged at once. District Attorney Hammel threatens to have the bankers arrested on complaints issued by depositors, but up to a late hour no arrests had .been made.