Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1866-10-06


Lake County Common Pleas, Journal g.,
Page 20, Saturday, January 10th, 1854.
~ O'' agt Indictment for Grand Lar
VIM. Nj. Cooley. } ceny.
This day camo the Prosecuting Attorney, and
the defendant, William nj. Cooley, being ar
ragned before the Court. pleads not guilty to
this indictment, and thereupon, the jury being
called, came to-wit
Thomas Carpenter, S. J. Talbot, N. Brisch,
Samuel Ii. Kimbal Isaac Moneysmith, G. 8.
Baldwin, II. s. Blair, Nelson Makepeace, Rou-
ben Copley, Charles |. Phibrook, Horace Cor
bett, f. T. Ingcrsoll, who being impanelled and
sworn the truth to speak upon the issue joined
between the partics upon their oaths do sag that
they find the issues between the rites to be
with the plaintiff, and that said defendant is
guilty in manner and form as he stands charged
in said Indictment, and assess the value OF the
property stolen at one hundred dollar and the
Court being fully advised in the premises to or
der and adudge, and it Is the sentence OF the
court that the said William NJ. Cooley be i'm
prisoned in the Penitentiary ofths State for the
| period of one year, and pay the cost of this pro-
secuton for which judgment is rendered; and
afterwards, to-wit, at this term of said court,
to-wt on the 10Th day of January, 1864, the de-
| fendant came into court and withdraws his
plea of not guilty, hereupon entered herein, and
pleads guilty TO petit larceny, which plea was
accepted by the Prosecuting Attorney, and
thereupon the court being fully advised in the
premises, do order and adjudge and 1t is The
sentence of the court that the defendant, Will
liam VI. Cooley, be imprisoned in the Jail of this
county for the period of twenty days, from and
including the present day, and fed on bread and
water only, and pay fine of fifty dollars and
costs of tn prosecution, for which judgment is
rendered
The foregoing is true copy from the journal
of the court of Comm on Pleas of Lake County
in the above action.
Perry BoswoRTH, Clerk.
] was Clerk of the court at the time the above
entry was made After it was completed, and
before Judge Chaffec signed the journal, on ac-
count of the novelty Of the proceedings, / call
ed his attention to it. He said it was correct,
and gave the facts as they occurred.
CQurSS.
Here, then, is the record. A record
made by Judge who has the frontless
hardihood to ask an endorsement of his
official acts. There it stands upon the
journal, and by him made part of the
judicial history of this district. Since it
must subsst for our shame, let it subsist
for our instruction also. Will the people
again put it in his power to make others
like unto itp Would that the record be
blotted out, and no longer stand in tho
face of day to blacken and disgrace the
judicial annals of the State.
| How does Judge G. attempt to explain
| it? We will see. During the canvass
Judge Bisscll and Captain J. B. Burrows,
of gainesville, in a public meeting at
Geneva, called public attention to this re-
cord, Judge c. finding that something
must be done to counteract its effects,
wrote and sent letter in manuscript to
some of his friends i'll that township, ad-
dressed "Io the PuJlic," in which he
says:
"Old Mr.. Paige ard his wife, the father and
mother-in-law Of the defendant, Cooley in
court requested that he should not be sent to
the Penitcntiary, ,-I-but be fully punished in
the county Jail, ,-2-as his wife was their only
child and she had two small children. and she
and one of her children then were sick,-3-
and all were poor and had but little if any pro-
perty.-t- I then sentenced
the defnnant to the extent of the law-5- as
| punished for petit larceny.
The sentence was thirty days q think on bread
| and W atcr in the dungeon of the jail-6- fine
$50 and costs, ,-7-which was (were) nearly
| as much more. s.
Now suppose we admit that what he
says in this extract to be true, docs it
furnish any justification for the act ? Sup
pose that Mr.. Paige, the prosecuting wit
ness and his wife did request that the de-
fendant be not sent to the Penitentiary,
and that Judge G. was willing to violate
the law to crafty their wishes, then why
sentence him to the Penitentiary. But
shall it be said by Judge, that if the
prosecuting witness happens to be faith
er-in-law to the defendant, and that faith
er-in-law has wife, and they have an
''0nly child" and that "only child" has
two small children, one of the small chill
dren and its mother "sick" at the time,
all poor, having but little if any proper
ty, and that father-in-law and his wife
request in court, that the defendant should
not be punished in the Penitentiary, then,
and in all such cases, grand hrceny as
transmitted into petit larceny. Pray, tell
US where, save in Judge Chatfee's Court,
is such logic taught? We had suppos,
ed that prosecutions for the violation OF
criminal law, were for the benefit of the
public; that the individual injury was
merged in the greater injury to the pub
lie, and that it was not in the power OF
the person injured, much less within the
province of the Court, to compound {
crime and make terms exempting felor
from the punishment prescribed by sta
tute for his otfense. Yet, what is still
worse, this excuse of Judge c., which by
its impotency is an insult to the under
standing, is not founded upon fact 1t il
not true that he sentenced the prisone
for thirty days in the dungeon of the jail
The sentence was for twenty days only
and not in the dungeon at all. 1t is no
true that he. Jined him $3.50, but only $50
and the costs were only S43 20.
Is it not true that Mr.. Paige and wifi;
requested that the first sentence be re
voked and defendant punished only in th'
jail. 1t is not true that the defendant
wife or child were then sick. 1t is no
true that all were poor, (for Mr.. Paige il
not.)
But let Mr.. Paige, whose probity ha
never been questioned, speak for himself
Here is his statement:
Statement of John Paige.
!, John Paige, of Painesville, Ohio, do, TO
the benefit of the public, make this statement
with the full knowledge of the truth Of all tn,
facts herein stated.
VIM. M. Cooley, in the winter of 1864, was
resident of Painesyille, and lived about fifteeI
| or twenty rods from me.