The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1873-01-20

It il not for me to say that the act forbidding
the replevyng liquors held by lap officer on a
search and seizure process is Unconstitutional
Is Without going into the de-
tails Of the evidence now, I will state that
the government expect to show you that
large quantity of liquor had been seized by
Deputy Sheriff Adams, under the provisions of
the law authorizing the seizure and ultimate
forfeiture of liquors kept for sale in violation of
law; that they were stored in the liquor room
in the basement of the City Building. AT q
late hour in the afternoon, when the police e.
partment was nearly vacant and the county
and city offices in the building were closed, Mr..
Williams, policeman, was surprised to see at
the lower door number of teams and men,
and at their head McGlinchy and Hail. the
coroner. w lliams Immediately went up to the
sheriff s Office and there found only Deputy
Adams, whom he Notified what was going on
below Adams went down and found them
rolling these barrels of liquor out of doors to
the teams. He Immediately ordered them to
desist, when Hall, the coroner, stepped forward
and said he had writ of replevn to
take the liquors. Adams looked at the writ,
which appeared to be in regular form, and al
though he had never heard of liquors in the
possession of an officer on process of search
and seizure, being replevied, yet coming as it
did from the office of a lawyer who stood SO
high in the profession as Mr. Putnam, he
thought it must be all right and made no fur
Their resistance, but allowed them to proceed.
We shall show that Mr.. Putnam, although not
actually present when the liquors were taken,
was seen IN the lower corridor just before, and
inquiring for Deputy Adams; that the men be-
low SAID at the time that they IRE acting un-
der the advice of Mr. Putnam, and that he made
the replevin writ
The County Attorney then stated the law up
on which he relied. the principal points OF
which were as follows:
Revised Statutes, Sec. 43, Chap. Y, provide
that liquors held by an officer on search and
seizure process shall not be taken from the
custody of the officer by writ of repleyin or
other process, while proceedings thereon are
pending
Conspiracy is confederacy of two or more
persons to accomplish some unlawful purpose.
''All confederacies to obstruct, prevent or
defeat the cause of public justice or to effect
a legal purpose by unlawful means, are crimi-
nal"
"If client and attorney conspire to resist
an officer in performing his duty, both are equal
ly guilty.
Section II, Chapter 126, of the Revised Stat
utes under which this Indictment is drawn,
provides that III any two or more persons con-
spire and agree together with the fraudulent
or malicious intent wrongfully and wickedly to
lnJure, the person, character, business or prop
erty OF another; or to do any act injurious to
the administration OF public justice, etc., they
snail be deemed guilty of conspiracy.
He contended that in this case these respon-
dents conspired to do an unlawful act and by
unlawful means, viz: to take these liquors on
writ of leplevin, when the statute provides
that liquors seized shall not be taken from the
custody of the officer by writ of replevin or
other process while proceedings are pending.
The witnesses for the government were then
called, viz: Perry, Adams. Officer Williams,
Judge Norris, and Recorder Kidder
Mr. Kiclder, Recorder of the Municipal Court,
was the first witness put upon the stand. He
produced the original papers upon which the
liquors were seized, which were objected to by
the counsel for the defendants, claiming that
they did not conform with the statute, and
therefore the liquors were not legally seized
At this point the court adjourned unit H. af-
ternoon.
AFTERNooN.-
The time was occupied in the afternoon in
arguing the objections to the admissability of
the documents upon which the liquors were
seized, which were finally admitted subject to
defendants objection.
AT this point (half past four) the court adj
journed until ten o'clock Monday morning.