By the Associated Press
Wilmington, N.C., Feb. 2—With the return of indictments today the stage was set for the trial of the Cooper bank case, beginning Monday in federal district court here. Among the defendants is Lieutenant Governor W.B. Cooper, and confinement in the federal penitentiary is among the penalties which the law provides for the alleged offenses on which he and three others will be tried. The case is an outgrowth of the failure of the Commercial National Bank of Wilmington, of which Lieutenant Governor Cooper was chairman of the board of directors. Facing trial along with him when federal court is convened Monday afternoon by Judge Henry G. Connor are Thomas E. Cooper, brother of the lieutenant governor and president of the defunct bank; Horace C. Cooper, son of the lieutenant governor and cashier of the bank at the time of its collapse, and Clyde W. Lassiter, a customer.
Conspiracy, embezzlement, conversion and misapplication of funds, making false entries in the books of the bank and making false reports of the condition of the bank to the comptroller of currency are charged in the indictments returned against the four defendants Saturday. The maximum penalty for violation of the national banking laws provided by the statutes under which the charges were brought is five years imprisonment or payment of affine of $5,000 or both.
The first case will be placed on trial Monday, according to Assistant District Attorney John D. Parker, will be that in which Lieutenant Governor Cooper and T.E. Cooper are charged with conspiracy.
A hard fought legal battle is indicated by the fact that the government has summoned nearly 70 witnesses and the defendants more than 50. The attorneys expressed the opinion, during a conference with Judge Connor today, that the greater part of the next two weeks would be required for trials.
The bonds of the defendants, which were not changed after the indictments were returned, are as follows: Thomas E. Cooper, $10,000; Lieutenant Governor Cooper, $5,000; Horace C. Cooper, $3,000; and Lassiter, $1,000. The case is declared to be unique in that it is the first time in the history of North Carolina that a prominent state official has faced criminal trial in the federal courts. The prominence of the Coopers, who are personally well known through the Carolinas and have prominent connections in other southern states, has also served to direct attention upon the trial. Noah W. Cooper of Nashville, Tenn., a brother of the lieutenant governor, arrived here yesterday to confer with the defendants and said he expects to return during the trial after a visit to the family homestead at Mullins, S.C. He is prominent in Tennessee and has been a leader in the prohibition fight for several years. Wade Cooper of Washington, D.C., and L.J. Cooper of Waycross, Ga., are also brothers.
Attorneys who have been retained for the trial include John D. Bellamy and sons of Wilmington, and R.C. Lawrence of Lumberton, who will represent Lieutenant Governor Cooper; Herbert McClammy and W.F. Jones of this city, are counsel for Thomas E. Cooper and Mrs. Lassiter. O.L. Henry of Rockingham is the attorney for Horace Cooper. District Attorney Irvin B. Tucker will personally direct the prosecution, aided by his assistants, John D. Parker and W.G. Briggs.
Five indictments were returned by the grand jury against the four defendants. In the first, Lieutenant Governor Cooper and T.E. Cooper are charged with conspiracy to embezzle and misapply funds of the bank, to make false reports of the condition of the bank, and to aid and abet Horace Cooper in making false entries. This indictment lists 16 separate offenses and 20 overtracts under the general charge of conspiracy.
The second indictment, which contains 13 counts, also is directed against Lieutenant Governor Cooper and his brother and charges them jointly with the alleged criminal acts mentioned in support of the charge of conspiracy in the first indictment.
The third indictment, also containing 13 counts, is directed against Thomas E. Cooper, charging him with conversion and misapplication of funds and with making false reports and false entries.
Thomas E. Cooper and Lassiter are charged in the fourth indictment with joint responsibility in several alleged instances of conversion and misapplication of funds in connection with an automobile business maintained by Lassiter. This indictment contains 14 counts.
Horace Cooper is charged in the fifth indictment with making false entries and misapplication of funds, this presentment by the grand jury containing seven counts.
The history of the now celebrated Cooper bank case started just about a year ago, on the last business day of 1922, when without warning the Commercial National Bak was closed by order of the comptroller of currency. So complete was the surprise that clerks and tellers appeared for work at the bank that morning only to find its doors barred against them.
Prior to the intervention of the federal authorities in their affairs, the Coopers have been for many years leaders in financial and business activities and in the public life of the section. “W.B.”, as the elder brother is known in Wilmington, was lieutenant governor, a leading Methodist layman, trustee of a number of church institutions, and head of a chain of banks, the largest of which was the Commercial National. “T.E.”, the younger brother, was looked upon locally as a warm-hearted financial genius. About 10 years ago, at the age of 29, he was said to have been the youngest president of a national bank in the United States. At the time of the bank’s failure, he was part owner of a Wilmington newspaper and was interested in many other business enterprises. He held no public office except that of member of the county board of education, which he retains. Horace Cooper had recently begun his career in the banking business after having held a captain’s commission in the marines during the war.
The Commercial National owned and was located in the second largest building in Wilmington, and its external appearance of strength was borne out by its last financial statement before the failure, which showed paid-in capital stock of $200,000, surplus of $30,000, deposits of more than $1,000,000, and total assets of nearly $2,500,000.
The full effect of the collapse was realized when, within a few weeks after the closing of the Commercial National, more than a dozen other banks crashed into the ruin. The largest was the Liberty Savings Bank of Wilmington, of which T.E. Cooper was president, and he is now under indictment in the state courts in connection with its failure. The others were smaller country banks in various parts of the state and W.B. Cooper was an officer in several of them.
The failure of the Commercial National occurred less than nine months after it had been reorganized and had been given a national charter. The first venture of the Coopers into the banking field was in 1912 when the lieutenant governor, then engaged in the cotton export business, and his brother organized here the American National Bank, with Thomas E. Cooper as president. Later this bank surrendered its National charter and became the American Bank and Trust Company. In April, 1922, was reorganized as the Commercial National Bank, after a period of about two years when T.E. Cooper had been vice president of the Merchants National Bank at Raleigh and W.B. Cooper (something missing at the end of the article)
From the front page of the Durham Herald, Sunday Morning, Feb. 3, 1924
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