Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 89, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1898 — CHARGED WITH A CRIME. [ARTICLE]

CHARGED WITH A CRIME.

United State* Senator Kenney, of Delaware. on Trial for Alleged Aiding of a Bank Wrecker. Wilmington, Del., July 12.—A trial probably unprecedented in the annals of this country, that of a member of the United States senate on a criminal

charge, began in the United States circuit court in this city Monday afternoon before Judge Edward G. Bradford. The defendant is Richard Rollin Kenney, of Dover, junior United States senator from Delaware, indicted upon a charge of aiding and abetting William N. Boggs, who has confessed to robbing the First national bank of Dover, of which institution he was paying teller, of the sum of $107,000. The counts in the indictment to which Senator Kenney has pleaded not guilty, charge him with aiding and abetting Boggs to the extent of about $3,500. Two men, Ezekiel T. Cooper, of Milford, and Thomas S. Clark, of Dover, have already been convicted of similar charges, and are now serving terms of 18 months and* five years, respectively, in the New Jersey' penitentiary. Boggs was the principal witness for the prosecution in each case. His story was to the effect that the greater part of his stealings were expended in stock speculations and gambling, and that In the stock speculations the defendants were associated with him by participating in his deals, and 'bat they gave him their checks when they had no funds in the bank, Bogg’s taking care of them from the bank’s funds. The high position of the defendant drew to the courtroom a crow’d that jammed its capacity and overflowed into the corridors.