The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1895-07-19
REV. MIR. COOPER rs DISCHARGED.
The Court Decides the Charges Are Not
Proven-Judge Cables Finding-The
Testimony Was Insufficient.

Testimony Was Insufficient.
The interest in the case Of the state
against Rev. Rufus T. Cooper culmin-
ated yesterday in the decision rendered
by Judge Cable by which Mr. Cooper
was discharged on all five counts. Mr..
Cooper's case was called OF II o'clock,
the accused and his counsel and one
or two members of the Ecclesiastical
committee being present. Rev. Gran
dali ]. North, presiding elder of the
district, was absent from court and
his absence caused considerable com
ment,
When City Attorney Matthewman
called the cases against Rev. Mr..
Cooper the latter took his seat at
the counsel table, Attorneys Kleiner
and Pickett fianking him on each side
Judge Gable then read his decision,
which was substantially as follows:
JUDGE CABLES DECISION.
There are five cases pending against
Mr.. Cooper, Of the same general char
acter; as intimated at the last hear
ing, | shall consider them separately.
Prelininarily I wish to say that the
cases are properly before the court,
and l must believe that If the testi-
mony of witnesses had been in reach
of the city attorney, the cases would
have been here before. The nature of
the offences charged Is we'll known,
and call for no description by the
court"
After stating the evidence of the
state, the Judge said:
This Is all the testimony in sup
port Of this case-the evidence of one
person uncorroborated; and all the evil
dence that tends to prove the allega-
tions is emphatically denied by the
accused.
Hence all the court has to consider
in this case is the testimony Of two
persons-that of the complainant and
accused. They both come h IRE with n
good reputation and as far as appears
with a good character.
"The testimony of the accused
stands on a different footing In many
in all respects, / might say, from any
disinterested witness. He stands here
charged with crime for which, If guilty,
he may be severely punished by i'm
prisonment. He is therefore m>st deep
| ly Interested in this case.
II cannot conceive OF any deeper in
terest save that of life itself. And in
considering his testimony, + have con-
stantly had in mind his almost over
whelming interest. Still there is moth
| ing which legally justifies me il giving
more credit to the testimony Of the
complainant that to that of the ac-
cused, and I'm legally bound to say
| that the evidencein this case is evenly
balanced, and that the testimony IS so
conflicting that 1t is impossible to rec
oncile it.
1.-THE accused fatty denies the states
evidence in the charge in the second
complaint which leaves 1t In precisely
| the same condition as that of the
previous case-evenly balanced.
The court then reviewed the evil
dence in each case, and continued:
Now what Is the law in the case?
All the presumptions of law independ-
ent of evidence, are In favor Of inno-
| cence, and every person is presumed
to be innocent until he is proven
guilty. If upon such proof there is a
reasonable doubt remaining, the &C.
| cused is entitled to the benefit of ii
| by an acquittaL
"Now the proof Of the charge in
criminal cases, involves the proof of
two distinct propositions: First, That
| the act itself was done; and secondly
that 1t was done by the person charged
and none other;-in other words the
corpus deficit and of the identity Of
| the person. AS to the second propo-
sition no question arises, in these cases
we are left to consider the first.
What does it mean? What should
| the proof Of the act done consist Of?
| In the decision of all criminal cases
these must be more than a preponder-
| ance Of evidence.
There must be more than moral
| certainty. The court should be en-
tirely satisfied of the guilt.
again, in addition to a fair pre-
ponderance of evidence alone, it should
| appear to the trier that there was q
mental consciousness of wrong intent
on the part of the person doing the
act. This alone seems to me to be in
almost all criminal cases the true test