Reporting an arrest effectively is a challenge that every news writer or journalist will face at least once in his life. Writing the news report of an arrest requires a special knowledge of the terms relating to crimes and court procedures. Sometimes legal terms also come into play.
The following is a sample news report of an arrest. It is based on the events in the one-act play ‘The Hour of Truth’ (originally published as ‘Confessional’) by Percival Wilde.
Financial fraud: banker arrested
By Our Special Correspondent
NEW YORK, NOV. 9. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) today arrested John Gresham, president of the DBCD Bank, in connection with a case relating to misappropriation of depositors’ money. The fraud, which resulted in a bank crash, was exposed a few days ago, and has caused panic among the depositors.
Mr. Gresham was arrested from his residence in Long Island and later produced before the Special FBI Judge, who remanded him to FBI custody.
The FBI spokesman, Mr. Hanley Davidson, told reporters here that Mr. Gresham was arrested on charges of stealing the funds and fraudulently transferring them to his benami accounts through forged documents.
During investigation of the case so far, the agency has come to dwell upon reasonable suspicion that the governor of the bank, Mr. Robert Baldwin too, may be involved in the fraud. The FBI has not questioned Baldwin yet. But it is expected that he will give evidence in court tomorrow.
None of the other employees in the bank had any idea that there was anything wrong until the crash came. One of the employees even told our reporters that Mr. Gresham had been a good boss to his employees and had been the kind of person whom nobody would suspect.
The properties of Mr. John Gresham have been attached under the provisions of law. The properties also included two million shares of about sixty companies.
Since Mr. Baldwin is the only witness to this fraud, everything depends on what he has to say in court tomorrow. Being the close associate that he has been to Mr. Gresham, it may not be easy for him to testify against the president.
Our Long Island Special Correspondent writes:
John Gresham, who was arrested in the afternoon and detained at the FBI office here for questioning, was later in the day produced before the special court which remanded him to police custody for 14 days from today till November 23.
The special court granted custody of the banker to the FBI “considering the huge amount of money involved and the resentment of the depositors.”