In re Wellcome

• Decision Date: 23 December 1899
• Parties: In re WELLCOME.
• Court: Montana Supreme Court

23 Mont. 450

In re WELLCOME.

Supreme Court of Montana.

Dec. 23, 1899.

Original proceedings to disbar John B. Wellcome. Judgment of disbarment.

C. B. Nolan, Atty. Gen., amicus curiæ.

Wm. Wallace, Jr., Carpenter & Carpenter, E. C. Day, and Jesse B. Roote, for accused.

PER CURIAM.

In the written accusations filed in this proceeding are contained specific charges of bribery, and also of conspiracy to bribe and to corruptly influence the official action, of members of the 6th legislative assembly in the election of a United States senator. Some of the charges are upon knowledge, and others upon information and belief. Questions arising out of objections to the form and substance of the charges were considered and determined in the former opinions of this court, reported in 23 Mont. 140, 58 Pac. 45, 47. Of the charges of bribery, four are upon the knowledge of the accuser, and specifically set forth the times, places, the amounts paid, and the persons who received them. These persons are Fred. Whiteside, the accuser, H. H. Garr, W. A. Clark, and H. L. Meyers. It is not controverted that these persons were, as alleged, all members of the assembly at the times mentioned in the charges. The accuser was the senator from Flathead county, and H. H. Garr a representative from the same county. W. A. Clark and H. L. Meyers were the senators from Madison and Ravalli counties, respectively. The amount alleged to have been paid by the accused to each one for his vote for W. A. Clark, of Butte, for United States senator, is: To Whiteside, $5,000; to Garr, $5,000; to Clark, $10,000; and to Meyers, $10,000. The charge of conspiracy to bribe is upon information and belief. It is alleged that the accused, by and through others, with whom he had entered into an unlawful and malicious conspiracy to corruptly influence the official action of members of the 6th legislative assembly, paid to many members thereof, whose names are unknown, large sums of money, by which they were induced to vote for W. A. Clark, of Butte, for United States senator. At the hearing, proof was admitted under all these charges, the court first requiring the attorney general to furnish the accused a bill of particulars containing specifications of names, amounts, times, and places under the charge of conspiracy. We shall eliminate from this discussion all the charges based upon information, and address ourselves directly to the question of the guilt or innocence of the accused upon the specific charges of bribery. Furthermore, as the evidence is very voluminous, and as, in our opinion, the order of disbarment must be made in case either one of these charges is sustained by the proof, we shall confine what we here say to the charge involving the payment of $10,000 to W. A. Clark, of Madison county. We shall refer to the cases of Garr, Whiteside, and Meyers only in so far as it may be necessary to elucidate this one. The portions of the evidence bearing upon the financial transactions of Warner, Geiger, and Hobson we have discarded as entirely immaterial. W. A. Clark was examined as to his dealing with Wellcome, and we give his testimony in full: “Q. What is your name? A. W. A. Clark. Q. How old are you, Mr. Clark? A. I am thirty-six past. Q. How long have you lived in Montana? A. About thirty-five years. Q. What is your business? A. I am an attorney at law. Q. Where do you reside and where do you practice your business or profession? A. In Madison county, Virginia City. Q. Were you a member of the 6th legislative assembly? A. I was. Q. A senator or representative? A. I was senator from Madison county. Q. Do you know Mr. Whiteside? A. I do. Q. Do you know Mr. Wellcome? A. I do. Q. Do you know Mr. Metlen, of Beaverhead county? A. I do. Q. Do you know Mr. Paul, of Beaverhead county? A. I do. Q. State whether or not the last-named persons were members of the last legislative assembly. A. Mr. Metlen and Mr. Paul were members of the house of representatives. Q. Did you during your stay in Helena, in the performance of your duties as a member of the legislative assembly, have any conversation with Mr. Wellcome? A. I did. Q. Through whose invitation did you see Mr. Wellcome? A. Mr. Whiteside. Q. Can you tell us about the time you saw Mr. Welcome? A. I think it was on the 4th day of January of this year. Q. Where did you see Mr. Wellcome? A. I saw him in room 207 of the Helena Hotel. Q. Who accompanied you to the room? A. Mr. Whiteside accompanied me as far as the door. Q. Had you been introduced to Mr. Wellcome before that time? A. I had known Mr. Wellcome before that time. I had known Mr. Welcome for two or three years. I had met him professionally. Q. Upon going to the door, did you go into the room? A. I went into the room. Q. Who were in the room at the time you went in there? A. When I stepped into the room, Mr. Wellcome was there and Mr. A. J. Steele. Q. How long did you remain in the room? A. I couldn't tell; probably ten or fifteen minutes. When I first stepped into the room, Mr. Steele and Mr. Wellcome passed out of the entry door, and I waited some little while before Mr. Wellcome returned, and I do not know how long I was there. Q. Upon the return of Mr. Wellcome, did you have any conversation with him? A. I did. Q. I wish that you would detail to the court, as explicitly as you can and with such circumstances as you can, the whole conversation that you had with Mr. Wellcome there. A. Well, when Mr. Wellcome returned, I said to him, ‘Mr. Whiteside informed me that you wanted to see me.’ He said, ‘Yes; I wanted to talk over the senatorial situation with you.’ He sat down, and commenced to talk over matters, and he said, ‘We want you in this fight with us, and we want you hard.’ He says, ‘We are going to win,-we are going to get the votes; and if we don't get them one way, we are going to get them another.’ He said, ‘I want you to vote for Mr. Clark.’ I said, ‘What is there in it?’ He said, ‘There is ten thousand dollars in it for you.’ I said, ‘All right.’ Mr. Wellcome then made the remark that he would turn the money over to Mr. Whiteside. I said that would be satisfactory, and the conditions were as he stated them,-that I was to vote for Mr. Clark for senator until they saw no chance of an election, or until they instructed me not to, but the money was to be turned over irrespective of Mr. Clark's election, if I voted for him. We then talked about the matter- Q. Just interrupting you a moment to put a question. You went along in the narrative to the limit of testifying that Mr. Wellcome designated Whiteside, and asked you if he would be satisfactory? A. Yes, sir. Q. What did you say? A. I told him he would. He said he would get the money, and turn it over to Whiteside for me. I said I had no doubt but that he would do so, but I did not want to do business in that way; that I wanted to see the money turned over and counted, and then see Mr. Whiteside about it. Q. What did he say in reference to that? A. He said, ‘We have not got the money now; we have pulled out all the big bills out of the Helena banks, but the old man [referring to Mr. Clark] will be over to-night with some currency, and I will see you then, and fix it up.’ Q. What was said by you about that? A. I told him that was satisfactory. Q. Was that all the conversation you had? A. That was all the conversation I had. Q. When did you next see him? A. Somewhere about between nine and ten o'clock that evening. Q. Where did you see him then,-in what room? A. 201 at the Helena Hotel. Q. How did you happen to go to the Helena Hotel at that time? A. Mr. Whiteside told me that Mr. Wellcome wanted to see me, and took me to this room. Q. At what hour of the day was this, - about what time was this interview that you speak about? A. Some time between two or three or four o'clock; I could not say exactly. Q. The second was the same night? A. The second was the same evening, between nine and ten o'clock. Q. You went to room 201 on account of an invitation extended to you, if I understand you correctly, by Whiteside? A. Mr. Whiteside came after me, and said Mr. Wellcome wanted to see me, and took me to that room. Q. After you got to that room, whom did you find there? A. I found Mr. Wellcome there. Q. I wish you would detail now the conversation you had then, and who were in the room when the conversation was carried on. A. After I went into the room, Mr. Wellcome explained to me, and to Mr. Whiteside in my presence, the conditions about this money. Q. What were the conditions? What was this explanation? A. It was to be turned over to Mr. Whiteside, to be delivered to me when I voted for W. A. Clark for United States senator until such time as they requested it, or until he was elected. Q. Then what took place? A. We sat, the three of us, in the middle of the room. Mr. Wellcome got up, and went over into that corner of the room (indicating), and made a remark about a picture hanging there,-about it being a fine engraving, -and said, ‘Come over here; Dr. Campbell occupies that room.’ There was a folding door, with curtains across at this end; and, when I went over in that corner, he pulled out an envelope out of his pocket, and laid it on the steam radiator, and he took the money out of the envelope, and counted it. It was not sealed at that time. He took out the bills, and there were ten one thousand dollar bills in it. Q. In respect to the points of the compass, what corner was it? A. The room being the same as this room, that corner (indicating) being the same as where the court sits, it was that corner. I am turned around in Helena as to the points of the compass, and I could not say. Q. It would be the southeast corner? A. I should judge it would be the southwest corner. Q. If you will, make a diagram showing the main street; that is, the street upon which the hotel fronts. (Witness complies.) Q. Now, which is the main street here? A. As I understand it, this is the street that the...