Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-11-02
Suspended for Three Years.

THE SENTENCE OF LIEUT.. NELSON T. HOUSTON
HE Is REPRIMANDED BY ACTING SECRETARY
HARMONY.
Acting Secretary Harmony has approved the
findings and sentence in the case of Lieut. Mel
son 7. Houston, tried at Newport, r. l., by a
general court martial on the charge of 'scan-
dalous conduct tending to the destruction of
good morals" The court sentenced him to be
suspended from duty for three years on half
waiting-Orders pay, to retain his present num-
Der in his grade, and to be publicly repri-
manded by the Secretary of the Navy
Lieutenant Houston was found guilty
of having obtained, without permission from
the proper authority, copy of the questions
to be propounded In examination to the men,
bers of the class of officers under instruction
at the torpedo station at Newport. In approx
ing the findings of the court. the Acting Sec
Rotary Endorsed them as follows:
THE charge upon which Lieut. Houston was
found guilty, viz, 'scandalous conduct tending
to the destruction of good morals, is one which
is sufficiently broad to include offenses involv-
ing different degrees of moral turpitude, and
the real character of any offense which con-
stitutes basis for such charge can be ascer-
tanned only by reference TO the specifications of
the charge In the present case the specifications
are three in number. and the court found each
of them proved. The first is TO the effect that
Lieut.. Houston sought to and did, knowingly,
obtain an unfair advantage over the other
members of his class, in the examination then
about to take place, by procuring in advance
of such examination, and without au-
thority, a copy of the questions to be
answered, and by keeping the same in his pos
session for the purpose of availing himself of
the advantage thus obtained. The second and
third specifications are to the effect that after
committing the first offense Lieutenant Hous-
ton was guilty of deliberately classifying the
facts concerning the means resorted to by
him for the purpose of obtaining the exam
ination questions, ana, did thereby cast an
aspersion upon employees in the printing
ing Office at the topedo station by pretending
that he had obtained the papers by the expen-
diture of half months pay. These speciica-
tions are fully sustained by the evidence, and
Lieutenant Houston is shown to have first wrong
fully obtained and kept an important paper
which he had no right even to see,
much less to retain in his possession, until
wilful1y and knowingly. misrepresented the
facts relating thereto. In doing this he has, as
appears by the evidence, made contradictory
statements, and has deliberately placed himself
in a position where, if he told the truth on
either occasion, he must. on the same hand, be
deemed guilty of the offense of bribery, or, on
the other, of a voluntary and inexcusable false
hood, duplicating innocent persons as partici-
pants in his own unworthy and un-oficer-like
conduct. The mere statement of the position
in which Lieutenant Houston's conduct has
placed him carries with it its own condemna-
ton; no comment is necessary. nor can any
language, however severe, indicate the char
acter of the conduct referred 10 more forcibly
than is done by simple reorganization of the
facts as established by the evidence and find
ings of the court