The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1881-08-19
i NEEDLESS EXPENSE ITO TAXPAYERS.

been source OF great expense TO the
people. While tho law should be
promptly enforced and criminals pun.
ished, yet when any expensive inno-
vations npon well established law is
| placticed, it should be promptly cor
rected. One of those innovations for
which tax payers have to pay no
doubt arises from the fact that JUS
tees of the peace when acting in the
capacity of magistrates in the pre-
liminarv examination of alleged Grim
inals for the purpose of binding the
accused over to appear before the
grand jury, too often make mistake
in not exercising their legally autho-
rized duty and thus protect the tax
payers from having to liquidate the
expense of groundless and often
spitefnl accusation. 1t is almost uni
yersally the case, that when any per-
son al pears before justice of the
peace and there files sworn state
ment in writing, accusing some ore
of an ofonse. that the magistrate
there-upon without any further infor-
nation upon the subject issues forth
with a warrant for the arrest of the
accused, and when the matter is ex-
amined into it is apparent that the
cause of complaint is frivolous and
without foundation, and the case ia
dismissed, or sometimes the accused
waivers an examination and is bound
over to await the action of the grand
jury, when it is dismissed by them.
In either case the Taxpayers have to
pay for the experiment. These kind
of cases are many times brought by
some person who has priavte pique
against the party accused, and not
wishing to bear the expense of a priv.
ate proc. eding if they have cause for
such, they file an accusation against
the object of their hatred and thus
seek to get revenge. This error is
not generally committed by magis-
trates with a willful disposition to do
wrong but by mistake upon their
part, caused by trying to aid in the
execution OF the laws where they do
not, understand their duty, or the
plain provisions of our statute. Our
Code on page 3s5 sec. 543 provides
that, "When complaint is made to a
magistrate of the commission of a
crime, he must examine the informant
on oath and reduce his statement to
writing and also take the dispositions
of any witnesses that the informant
may produce in support thereof" Sec.
a44 also provides that ''if the magis-
trate be satisfied that the crime COM
planned of has been committed. and
that there is probable cause to believe
that the person charged has commit
ted it he must Issue a warrant of ar
rest" 1t is very evident from the
above that it is the duty Of the mag
istrate in such cases to refuse to issue
the warrant until the complaining
party produces sufficient competent
witnesses for examination and
until the magistrate is satisfied that
the crime complained of was commit
ed by the accused, but on the contrary
the warrent in such cases is usually
issued when no information is had on
the subject except that obtained from
the private prosecutor and wht n they
have but little idea and many times
are really in doubt as to wheather
crime has been committed by the
party charged. If such officers
would take care to understand and
perform their duty as prescribed by
our laws for them to do in such cases
it would no doubt greatly lessen the
the taxes. For in the majority of
such cases if the accusor was requir-
ed to bring his witnesses before the
magistrate and their deposition taken
by him he would readily come to
the conclusion that no crime had
been tommitted, or that the accused
was not the guilty party, and there
upon he would refuse to issue the
warrant and thus save the public
from paying large bill of costs.
After the warrant is issued every-
thing is done IN the name of the state
and at the expense of. the people.
This plain provision of our statute
which IS nearly always overlooked
was no doubt enacted by our legis-
lature with the intention that by it a
means would be afforded by which
the public would be protected against
these large bills of costs which so
often occur and are almost invariably
brought about by parties to serve
some private end or crafty some
malicious feeling against their fellow
man. For such reasons and MANY