Digest of Public Opinion on Jewish Matters

[The purpose of the Digest is informative. Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval.–Editor.]

Contempt of court proceedings against the Ford defense for their manoeuvres in forcing a mistrial in the Sapiro-Ford suit are believed to be a possible development before long by H. Lang, a member of the “Jewish Daily Forward” staff, who reported the trial for that paper from Detroit. Writing under the heading “Now It Can Be Told” (Forward, April 26 issue) Mr. Lang describes the back stage developments in and around the court which could not be reported while the trial was going on. He charges that the mistrial caused by the woman juror’s interview in a Detroit paper was the result of a deliberate frame-up by the Ford defense. Seeing that Reed’s unsuccessful cross-examination of Sapiro was drawing to an end and realizing that Ford would then be called to the stand, the Ford defense resorted to desperate methods, we are told by Mr. Lang, who continues:

“Determined to break up the trial at all costs the Ford defense ‘wound-up’ a reporter of a Detroit newspaper to get an interview with the woman juror. The reporter told her that she was being accused of intending to sell her opinion, and he also insinuated that she was charged with having a ‘blind pig’ and maintaining an immoral house. Hearing this she exclaimed that it was a lie and that someone was evidently seeking to keep the case from the jury. That was the whole ‘interview’. But the Ford counsel pursued their manoeuvres further. First, they declared in court that Senator Reed was sick and asked a postponement of one day: a day later they declared that Senator Reed was still sick and asked postponement of two more days and stated that at the expiration of those two days they would demand that the Judge stop proceedings to take up the charges against the woman juror. The day before that the Ford counsel were to present to the court the affidavits of the Ford detectives regarding the charges against the woman juror, as well as copies of those affidavits to Sapiro and his counsel. Let us see what method they employed next.

“First they stated that they were making no charges against Sapiro himself, which they did in order to forestall any move in court on the part of Sapiro. Sapiro, therefore, waited for the affidavits. The affidavits were presented to Sapiro after five o’clock on Wednesday afternoon, which is to say, on the evening prior to the day when the whole matter was to be taken up by the court. They did this so that Sapiro might not have enough time to prepare an adequate reply. Moreover they did not present the affidavits to the court until about the same time they handed the copies to Sapiro. It was one minute before the closing of the court office by the clerk. This did not give the court an opportunity to realize what was going on. But that was not all. They kept detectives at the court entrance all day long although there were no court proceedings, so that the newspaper correspondents might also be there expecting developments. The Ford counsel needed the newspaper men for their ‘game’. They needed especially the reporters of the Detroit papers. When the affidavits charging the woman juror were brought into court at the last minute before closing, copies of the affidavits were handed to the newspaper men. That was very deliberately calculated. The Detroit papers appeared that evening with the whole sensation and reprinted the affidavits. On the following morning, Thursday, when the court reopened to take up this question, the whole thing had already become public. The court, therefore, had no other alternative but to declare a mistrial, since the jury could no longer be prevented from outside influences.

“One of the Detroit newspapers has been indicted for contempt of court because of this. But if all the details were to be probed, contempt of court proceedings could in fact be instituted against the Ford defense. And it is possible that this will happen.

“Sapiro is possessed of remarkable courage, and so is his attorney, Gallagher. They will not let this matter rest until complete investigation will be made.”