Former Student Sues Cambridge Trust Co. In False Arrest Case

A former Graduate School of Education student, acquitted three years ago on a charge of forging University chocks, said last night he would move for a new trial in his false arrest suit against the Cambridge Trust Company.

Albert C. Knaus, now teaching at Friends Academy in North Dartmouth. Mass., made the statement after a Cambridge judge had called a mistrial in his $100,000 suit against the bank. The suit charged malicious prosecution, false arrest, and slander.

A part-time employee in the University post office, Knaus was arrested January 11, 1951 and accused of stealing $1,500 in University checks. Police said he took the checks out of the mail and then cashed them in local banks with forged signatures.

To support the charge, a Cambridge Trust teller came forward and identified Knaus as a man he had seen cashing a check in the bank. Knaus denied ever having been in the bank, however, and was finally acquitted on all 56 counts of forgery and larceny charged against him.

The teller, John N. Fisher, no longer works for the bank, but testified in Knaus' false arrest suit.