Weekly Phoenix herald., 1883-12-06

1 have said, shall charge the Jury especially that they must not act upon anything except the testimony of the witnesses before thom, and I order everybody within my control, and thInk the officers of the Court are under my control 10 a certain extent, to refrain from discussing, and particularly from writing, on the subject. If anyone within the control of the Court should disregard this admonition, I shall certainly punish them if I have legally the power to do so.
 On the conclusion of Judge French's remarks, Hon. Clark Chur, chill arose and said:
 "With the Courts permission I wish to call it's attention to one mat ter especially. So far as 1 partici- pated in this unfortunate affair, I am exceedingly sorry for it, as l presume al e all the others, and regret very much that a statement should have been given out and published in newspaper, signed by an officer, who is the highest officer of this Court after the Judge himself, pur> porting to state all the facts and cir cumstances of the case. call the attention of the Court to the matter, and if your Honor has not seen what I refer to, which is signed by the gentleman who occupies the high position of Clerk of this Court, I will.
 At this point MT. Churchill was interrupted by MT Wilksrson, who said:
 NIT. Churchill, you are mistaken; :; never signed any such article as the Courier published.
 MT. Churchill: It is not a ques- tion as to the special statement, but it is as to whether it is proper for an officer of this court to attach his signature to any statement whatever when such signature will be taken as official, even when il is not so signed, and thereby to give all the weight of evidence to the facts so set out.
 MT. Wilkerson: I did not sign that statement. Here is part of it that I didn't know anything about at all. I never signed any statement saying that Charley Beach or Jimmy More jumped on Charley Rush and struck him. I didn't sign the whole of that statement even if I signed portion of it. When MT. Rush came to me with it 1 told him that 1 would sign what I was willing to swear 10. MT. Rush told me the part objected to was all right; it was in regard to the lie. 1 remem~ ber what l signed, and there is to o much here. (ReferrIng to the state> ment in the Courjer.) All that is in the part I signed is true. I will never sign anything that I won't swear to. MT. Rush will say him. self as to what occurred about the ''damn lie."
 Mr. Churchill: As to the states ment of what was done, I do not propose to discuss here. The only question which I present to this honorable Court is, whether any of ficer of this Court should be permits ted to sign any statement purporilng to give the facts of the case to the public.
 By the Court: Did you suppose, MT. Wilkerson, this would be pub- lishcd?
 MT. Wilkerson: didn't know that it was to be.
 By the court; How long was the statement that you signed?
 Mr. Wilkerson: It was not nearly as long as this (Referr1ng to the statement in the Gourier.) MT. Rush 
 District Attorney Rush then arose and said: If your honor please, if I have done MT. Nrilkerson any wrong I am sorry for it; I went to him with a statement and asked him if it was correct. desire to put myself OF record just as I am. There was one word in the statement-Ihe word "damn"-which Mir. WIlkerson said he did not remem Der, and put my pencil through it. I had the paper in my hand at that time and 1 une derstood that he knew the facts that were stated in the extra, and when I had run my pencil through the word 'damn," understood that he ap- proved of the remainder of the state> ment If he didn't intend to sign beyond that, it is mistake on my part.
 MT. Churchill: Another officer of this court has signed that statement, Mir. NJ. V. Howard, and I simply call the attention of your honor to the fact that the officers of your court have undertaken to give a statement of the facts to the public. While I heartily deplore that anyone should have undertaken to state the facts, 1 believe the matter should be thoroughly investigated hereafter. For myself I avoided any statement or even the expression of an opinion in the matter, although applied to by the reporters of the different papers It was an unfortunate affair and I regret it as much as any one. and as to attempting to make capital out of it, l should above all things refrain