Los Angeles herald., 1890-11-18
WHITTIER ARE WE DRIFTINGf

A few days ago the people of Los An
geles were treated to the extraordinary
spectacle OF a superior judge permitting
man on trial for felony to harangue
the court in a stump speech, in which
he attacked in the most insolent manner
and with the vituperation of the slums
the press of this city. The honorable"
court not only failed to check him in his
filthy diatribe, but seemed to consider
that he was sitting there to give the
widest latitude to the thrice-indicted
forger to make irrelevant and filthy as
saults upon respectable people who
never made mistakes in signing their
names to negotiable paper.
Yesterday these same people were
treated to another extraordinary judi
cial exhibition in the trial of Edelman
upon one of the several indictments
found against him for robbing the county
treasury by making out false jury lists.
After having formerly quashed several
bills of indictment against the ex-deputy
Republican county clerk upon the fiimsy
demurrer of his counsel that no crime
could haye been committed because
few common and usual abbreviations
had been made in filling out the war
rants, he yesterday granted the motion OF
the prisoners counsel at the conclusion
of the trial to instruct the jury to ac-
quit. 1t would seem that the prosecu-
ton had made out strong case, for the
twelve "good men and true" refused to
be governed by the instructions OF the
court, but retired to deliberate upon
their verdict. At this writing the jury
are out for the night, and the result of
their deliberations will only be known
today. 1t was rumored they stood at
7 30 last evening, eight for conviction
two against, and two who were in a state
of doubt.
We have here a sample of the partial
ity which some of our Republican judges
seem to have for Republicans who are
charged with crimes the most dangerous
to society. 1t has been clearly shown
in the Edelman indictments that the
treasury has been robbed, and the
crime has, beyond the peradventure of a
doubt, been brought to the very door OF
the accused ex-official. Yet every flimsy
quibble and technicality which the
counsel for the prisoner could trump up
has been decided in his favor.
The question presents itself, are courts
established here for the purpose of
shielding criminals and encouraging
dishonest officials in robhing the tax
payers? 1t would seem as if the people
are not entitled to protection from the
courts of Los Angeles when Republi-
can is in peril but that every point is
strained by them to save the derelicts
from punishment. Substantial justice
is not in their category of duty, but they
wrest the law not to do little right
but to do a great wrong.
A plain statement of the points proven
in the case in which the judge instructed
the jury yesterday to render verdict of
acquittal, will enable the people to appre-
ciate the difficulty of obtaining convic-
ton in these cases. The prosecution
proved that Edelman was the clerk of
the court; that he presented to the su-
pervisors list OF the jurors with the
fees to which they were entitled;
that on that list was the name of
Bliss as entitled to $54 OF jury
fees; that the supervisors certified the
list to the auditor to draw the warrants;
that the Bliss warrant was made out by
the auditor and handed to Edelman by
his deputy; that the warrant was pre-
sented to the treasurer by first cousin"
Cohn, who endorsed the name of Bliss
upon it; that the money was paid; and,
finally, the towering fact that Bliss had
not served as juror at ALL had not
earned the fees set forth in the warrant,
and had never seen the warrant nor re-
ceived cent of the $54.
That would appear to be consecu-
tive and complete case; and yet the
Republican judge instructs the jury to
acquit the Republican ex-oficial, which
they very properly refused to do.
With these astounding facts before
them, we would ask the people what are
they going to do about it? Why, of
course, like good, law-abiding citizens,
they will walk up to the tax-captain's
Office next month and good-naturedly
each pay his proportion Of the money
thus stolen from the county. There
ought to be an end of this kind of work.
#"
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