Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1895-12-21
Exhaustive Majority Opinion Of Su-
preme Court Handed Down by AS
sOciate Justice Laughlin.
CONCLUSIVE JUSTIFICATION OF COURT
Contempt of Court Clearly Defined
Summary Punishment Sustained
by the Decisions Instruc-
tive Document.
In the supreme court of the territory
of New Mexico, July term, 1895.
In the matter OF the Territory vs.. Thos.
Hughes, respondent, for contempt.


Quk uob, rcopOuuouVt IOE CoAucuP"
srATEMENT.
The espondent was attached upon ar
affidavit, and information made by W. b
Childers, a member of committee ap
pointed by this court, to prepare and
prosecute charges against Thomas B
Catron and Charles A. Spiess for alleged
unprofessional conduct, in tho trial of the
case of the Territory of New Mexico va
Francisco Gonzales y Borrego ct al, tor
the murder of Francisco Chavez, which
was tried in the district court for the
county Of Santa Fe, in the month of May,
1895. Jacob Il. Crist, the district attor-
ney, represented the territory in the trial
of that case. At the July, 1895, term of
this court, the said Crist, as district at
torney, filed his own affidavit and copies
of portions of the testimony taken upon
the trial of said cause; and also the affi-
davit of several other persons, in which
it was alleged that the said T. B. Catron
and Charles A. Spiess had been guilty of
efforts to procure falso affidavlts from
the witnesses, and otherwise improperly
affect the testimony of the witnesses in
that case. Upon the fling of said affi-
davits by the said district attorney, this
court appointed John P. Victory, A. A.
Jones, W. B. Childers, s. B. Newcomb and
B. s. Rodey, all prominent members of
the bar of this territory, to inquire into
the alleged offenses, and to prepare and
file proper charges against the said Cat
ron and Spless, if in their Judgment
should be deemed necessary, and present
! them to this court, and to procure such
evidence as they thought proper and sub
NIT the same to the court, in order that
there might be full investigation of the
charges 80 made against the said respond
ents, Catron and Spiess.
After the committee had filed such
charges, and the hearing upon same had
been fixed by the court, while they were
pending and undisposed of in this court,
there was publication in the Daily Citi-
zen, newspaper published at Albuquer-
que, in the county of Bernalillo, of an art
icle nearly three columns in length, en-
titled, "Is it Honesty or Partisanship?"
The following are extracts from said arti-
Gle:
THE CITIZEN ARTICLE.
"Last Sunday evening Chief Justice
Smith, of the supreme court of this terri
tory, wired w. B. Childers that he intend.
ed TO spend the night with him in this
city.
"It has been reliably ascertained that
the object of his visit to Albuquerque,
outside of his own district, and away
from Santa Fe, the seat of the supreme
court, was to consult with Childers, one
of the attorneys designated to formulate
charges against 7. B. Catron, based on
information il the nature of afidavlts
and copies of part of the evidence in
the 1st judicial district court, in the case
for the murder of Chavez, presented by
j. H. Crist. Judge Smith, notwithstand-
ing the fact that he is member of the
supreme court, and as such one of the
judges to hear and try such charges, has,
contrary to all precedent, delicacy and the
ethics pertaining to the judicial action,
descended from the high position which
he should have commanded, so as to ap-
pear in the partisan effort to ruin the
character of an attorney whose only crime
is that he was, at the last election, select
ed by majority of about 5000 votes to
represent New Mexico in congress. In
his zeal to cripple the influence Of Cat
ron to aid New Mexico and her people,
Judge Smith has made this visit to Albu-
querque, and at the residence of Childers
took up nearly the whole night in discuss
ing the case on it's merits. It is well un-
derstood that prior to any action taken
in the supreme court in this matter Judge
Smith also met and had full consulta-
tion with Childers, Orist and other attor-
ueys, who were at enmity with Catron, in
regard to the propriety and feasibility of
pushing the cause against Catrou; that it
was there determined to punish them for
political and personal reasons; that
Judge Smith would see that they were re-
ferred to special committee of the bar,
com posed of majority who would be
hostile to Catron, either politically or
personally, or both, but that it should be
80 done that II should be made to appear
to the other members of the supreme
court that it was intended to be non par
tisan.
80 npvy vCrvoy vvmuuDrn