The New York County Grand Jury yesterday was prepared to return an indictment for bribery against Arthur Simon, former Health Department Kashruth investigator, it was learned authoritatively.
The Grand Jury asked for an indictment blank after hearing testimony from Abraham Gellis, an official of the Isaac Gellis Kosher Meat Products Company, and Detective John Cordes, attached to the District Attorney’s office, it became known.
Gellis was understood to have testified that he gave Simon a $250 bribe to “fix” a kosher food law violation charge brought against him by one of Simon’s inspectors.
Simon yesterday countered with the accusation that he is being “framed.”
“I emphatically deny the charge that has been made against me,” he said in a statement to the press, “and have been seeking to have this matter aired in open court. Gellis was asked to make a complaint to the Magistrates’ Court, but he dared not do so. They preferred to take this matter before a secret body, the Grand Jury, where I would have no opportunity to offer my side of the story. This was the only course left for the District Attorney.
CLAIM TRAP SET
“This is purely and simply a frame-up, and I shall prove this to be so at the proper place and time I want all those in whose cause I have worked during my tenure of office to know that I have done nothing wrong and have nothing to fear.”
The first complaint was made by Gellis November 9 when he appeared at the office of Assistant District Attorney James G. Wallace to complain that Simon had solicited a bribe. A trap was set for Simon by Gellis and Detective Cordes at the Broadway Central Hotel, the spot where, according to Gellis’ story, the money was to change hands.
Simon was discharged recently from his post by Health Commissioner John L. Rice “for the good of the service.”
Last week Gellis and his grandfather, Samuel Glass, were held for Special Sessions by Magistrate Jonah J. Goldstein on the kosher food law violation charge.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
