Though his banknotes were drawn by hand, bearing his own signature as chief cashier, the British government pressed charges under Section 18 of the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act, threatening to end his career with a forty-year prison sentence.
All had been arrested in the preceding 24 hours or so, on charges ranging from theft to deception to criminal damage - a normal cross-section of offences, along with other "street crimes" for this court to deal with during more regular office hours.
But David Harbach of the U.S. Justice Department's public integrity section told jurors in a rebuttal argument that Lowell was merely trying to distract jurors from focusing on the charges against Edwards.