The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-11-13
some VERY COLD FACTS
In the Official History
of Sheriff Nc
Phillips.
A STORY OF TWO EXECUTE ONs
Took Six Months to Get the Matter
Settled-A Police Justices
Statements.

After the first edition of THE JERSEY
CRY NEWS began to circulate about the
streets yesterday. expressions of amuse-
ment at the disgraceful condition of the
Sheriff IS Office were heard everywhere.
People had read day after day the mass
of indisputsble evidence of the mslad-
minstration of the Sheriff's Office fur
nished by The NEWS, but they were not
prepared for the exhibition of
gross neglect by the Sheriff that
The NEWS furnished yesterday.
Actual notices of amercement cases
served on a sheriff show condition that
is emphatically condition and not a
theory, and it is shameful condition,
too. The amercement proceedings begun
by Nevin & Minturn against Sheriff Nc.
Phillips 10 compel him to do his duty is
net the only instance that this derelict
Sheriff has been threatened In this man
ner.
A short time before Vice Chancellor
Pitney went to Europe, McPhillips had
narrow escape from being amerced. For
the benefit of those who do not under
stand the meaning Of the legal term. ITO
s%sree sers that sheriff" 4 Is will III state ths
nature of a fine imposed by the Court on
Sheriff for not properly doing his Off
cial business. A Sheriff who has been
amersed by the Court is in greater dis
grace than a lawyer who has been fined
tor contempt of court
INEXCUSABLE NEGLECT.
AS another sample of how john j. Nc
Phillips conducts his office, will tell
short story about one of the most mex
cusable cases of neglect that has ever
taken place in the office Of the Sheriff OF
Hudson County. Last fall Counsellors
Thomas F. Kennedy and w. II. Lewis
obtained Judgment against debtor.
and an execution was placed in the hands
of McPhllips. Mr.. Kennedy, in relating
these facts today said:-"1 asked Nc
Phillipa il the property was clear. or If
any other execution was held against 1t.
The Sheriff told me he had no other exc
cution. Subsequently asked the Sheriff
two or thre times II he were
certain that no other execution had been
issued before the one obtained by me for
Mr. Lewis. The Sheriff each time as-
sured me that he had no other execution.
Under our execution levy was made
and then the fact reached the ears of
firm of Vredenburg 81 Garretson;
Mr.. Rosenberg Immediately sought
the Sheriff and demanded what he meant
by making a levy under the execution OBJ
tanned by Mr.. Kennedy when Mr.. Rosen-
berg had placed an execution IN the
The Sheriff failed to remember having
even received this valuable document but
Mr.. Rosenberg very promptly and In q
manner that could not be misunderstood,
convinced the Sheriff that he mad re-
ceived the execution and demanded that
it should be executed in the priority it
was entitled to, for if this was not done
aud the property was sold under the
second execution, there might not be
enough property left to satisfy the first
claim.
MPHILLIPs' SCARE AGAIN.
McPhillips was thoroughly frightened
at the predicament he was in and after a
while produced the first execution. His
only excuse for not having executed 1t
was that the document had been mislaid.
This execution was turned over to jerry
Maher, and, strange to relate, the execu-
tiou was again lost. 1t TOOK six months
to straighten out the mixed condition of
affairs caused by this gross negligence in
the Sheriff's office.
~ am glad to see that you are engaged
in the good work of exposing The abuses
in the Sher. .ff's office" said Police JUS
tice to me yesterday. do not want to
have nv name used in this connection be-
cause my relations with the business in
the Sheriff's Office Is limited, but If l
were q lawyer / would, under my own
name, denounce the shameful condition
Of affairs. When McPhillips' was a can
didate / supported him as earnestly as
any man could, for I thought he would
make a good official. When
he drew his first grand and petit juries I
realized that my judgment concerning
McPhillips had been bad His subse-
quent juries have not been any improve
nent, and any one with half an eve can
understand how the high office of
Sheriff is being prostituted. I send
many prisoners to the Court House to be
tried by Jurors selected by Sheriff Nc
Phillips. and the number of curious &C.
qufttals that take place is astonishing.
In TACT / have heard the Prosecutor
speak in strong terms about some of the
verdicts these juries have brought in, and
on many occasions the Court mas been
more than surprised
REMARKABLE PARSIMoNY.
"When you told the public now par
simonious McPhillips is in the admins
tration of his office and how he compels
constables to serve his papers without
pay because he appoints them to the
courts and Grand Jury, you did an ex-
cellent thing. If McPhillips is not
willing to pay his help he should do the
work himself. He is the most parsimoni-
GUS OF any of the sneriffs who ever held
Office In this county. his only extravag-
ance being his effort to prove that he is
not prohibitionlst."
The Hudson County Bar Association
will meet early in next month, and the
condition of the Office of Sheriff will be
thoroughly discussed with view to
holding an inve estigatson. The assoca-
tion would have no power to subpoena
witnesses and documents, and conld only
depend on voluntary witnesses. This
is urged by some members sof
the Bar Association as rea-
son why the members should
not make an investigation, but that they
should adopt a resolution setting forth
the abuses In the Sheriff's office aud ask
ing the Legislature to 1mpench Sherln