The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-11-14
POLICE BRUTALITY.
How Officer Dolan of West
Hoboken Obtained In
formation Of the
Silk Strike.
CLUBS A MAN IN A CELL
Then Has His Victim Indicted for
Assault, but He Is Ac-
quilted.

During the strike in June last at liver
naud's silk mill in West Hoboken, the
strikers complained that the police In
that precinct were in the employ of the
silk factory people to obtain information
about the strikers. Suspicious actions
of certain police officers gave color to
the charge, and a case before Judge
Hudspeth in the Court of General Ses-
sions this morning showed at least that
two police officers conduct ought to be
investigated by the West Hoboken Town
Council.
In June last William Klein, a respect
able mechanic, was standing in a saloon
drinking with some friends. Policeman
John Dolan rushed in and grabbed Klein
marched him off to the station house and
locked him up on a trumped up charge
of disorderly conduct. He was searched
before being locked up. Then Sergeant
Usher for some reason ordered Dolan to
research Klein.
DOLAN AND HIS CLUB.
Dolan, a big, powerful, clumsy-looking
fellow, marched into the cell with a
club. and, according to Klein, brutally
struck him and seized his private papers
These papers contained information about
the strikers which the Givernauds would
find interesting reading. Klein, a slim
weak man, was powerless in Dolan's
grasp and yelled for help. Several peo-
pie who witnessed the unwarrantable
arrest heard the cry and saw Dolan EN-
erging from the cell with the papers III
one hand and his club in the other.
Klein was discharged for the alleged
disorderly conduct by the local magis-
trate and at once commenced a suit for
false arrest against Dolan. That indi-
vidual at once became scared, and to
head off Klein went before the Grand
Jury and made a charge of assault and
battery against Klein. Thu latter was
indicted and the. trial took place this
morning.
EVERYONE DISGUSTED.
Dolan in a whining tone which amused
and Disguised the audience in the court
room, said that Klein had attacked him,
tore his coat and broke his watch chain,
and, in fact, his little pun Klein had
become a terrible person and beat the big
officer mercilessly.
you had no usiness to go into the
cell and search this prisoner a second
time said Judge Hudspeth.
Klein denied the officers cock and bull
story and completely contradicted Ser
geant Usher, who stuck to Dolan's story,
that Klein did all the assaulting and Dol
an carried no club.
Gen. W. C. Heppenheimer, counsel for
Klein, had half a dozen reputable citi
zens in West Hoboken whose testimony
fatty c~ontradicted the police story. They
all saw Dolan come out of the cell with
a club. Judge Hudspeth, in charging
the jury, said that at the most the second
search of a prisoner arrested on a trivial
charge was questionable n clearly tran
seended the privilege to search for dan
gerous weapons. The Court put no re-
lance on Dolan's statement that he had
no club, and charged the jury that if they
thought the officer used that weapon in
an understandable search Klein was per-
fectly right in defending himself.
The jury promptly acquitted Mr.. Klein.