Omaha daily bee., 1888-01-25
THE OPENING DAY OF COURT.
Judge Thornen Makes Ready For
First Trying the Criminal.
SHAKING DOWN THE chEsrNUTs.
A Foolish Girl Taken Back Home
BY Her Father-A Gang Of
bad BOys-The Ogden
House.
The Opening of Court.

the day was spent in calling the calen-
dar. The call was as usual, rather
dreary and devoid of interest, except
to the attorneys. They sought to re-
lieve the monotony by an occasional in
terchange Of sallies over the dismissal
or continuance Of some case. The GRIM
inal docket was first called. Many OF
the old cases were wiped off. They had
been hanging along term after term,
nothing being done with them, and
there being little prospect for the fu-
tu1e. Many of these court chestnuts
were thrown away.
The cases against ex-County Clerk S.
ID. Street, in which he was charged
with embezzling considerable amount
from the county were dismissed. At
torney Ware, who had been employed
by the county board as an expert to
check through Streets accounts, re-
ported that he had thoroughly examined
the accounts, and that he did not be-
lieve that Street could be convicted.
The board had reached u settlement OF
the matter and so far as he was con-
cerned the cases could be dismissed.
Colonel Daily. the county attorney, had
no objection to offer, and the attorneys
for the defendant of course had none, so
Streets record was cleared up.
The case against Kirkland, formerly
auditor, was also dismissed. Mr.. Ware,
who had been largely concerned in this
been secured for the amount of money
involved, and he was satisfied that the
retention Of the money by kirkland was
not of such nature as to lead to his
conviction for any oifense. He had
simply held the money as the result OF
Il misunderstanding between two 9TH
ers, and the three could not be brought
together to secure a settlement. 1t was
a mistake having any indictment found
against him.
1t seemed as if there had been a good
deal of recklessness in the way indict-
ments had been found against a good
and worthy man. or else that the grand
jury had been serving as q sort OF in
auisition to force the victims into set
tlement with the county of amounts
which the county had no faith in col
lecting by civil processes.
The case of Arch Coffman, for the
killing OF Jack Main, was announced to
be for trial this term. Under the pres
ent arrangement it will be tried by
Judge LoofbourOw, who will come here
during the present term to preside in
some cases, wherein Judge Thornell
| was the prosecuting attorney before be-
ing placed upon the bench.
The trial of criminal crses will begin
to-day anu will be completed during the
| coming two weeks. Then the civil
cases will be called and the grand jury
will go at work. BY this arrangement
| Colonel Daily, the prosecuting attorney,
will be able to get through the trial of
criminal cases, so as to give his atten-
tion to the grand jury. The outlook is
| rather in favor of the idea that Colonel
| Daily purposes making it rather warm
| for the gamblers who have disregarded
| his published warning that if they did
| not quit business he would prosecute
them. The grand jury has been ex-
cused for two weeks, but will then meet
for real business.
The contempt cases Of saloon keepers
1 were called. The call caused the num-
Der ready for trial to dwindle down to
one, that being the case against Heit-
asked for by the defense I'M this. There
were several others on the calendar, but
some OF these proved to be there by mis-.
take, in others the defendants had
skipped out of the state, and others had
already had judgements entered against
the defendants.
The assignment OF criminal cases is a:
follows:
| Wednesday-Nos. 1866, 1886, 1895
1893.
Thursday-Nos. 1865, l762, 1897, l79S
1900, 1908.
| Friday-Nos. 1916, 1911.
The practice has been of late to use
Saturdays for hearing motions. Judge
Thorne1l does not seem to favor thi
plan greatly, as experience has showl
that much of the time on that day ha
gone to waste, there not being enough
of this business to keep the court EN-
ployed all day. He announced yester
day that he would consult with tn
members of the bar, and decide thi
morning what would be done about it.
One thousand head Of one, two an
three-year-old steers for sale. Will Civ