The San Francisco call., 1897-11-20
DISTRICT ATTORNEY B. A. HERRINGTON.

| been extorted from the I'm In raids of he
boodlers.
! People who are familiar with the pre-.
cedure necessary to secure the payment
| of the bills of Justices of the Peace are
now asking why the Grand Jury does not
| investigate the Office of the District Att
! torney. Under an ordinance passed By
the Santa Clara County Board of Super
visors all bills presented by Justices of
the Peace must receive the certi6cation of
the District Attorney before ne warrants
in payment of them are issued by the
| County Auditor. This certificate is sim
ply as to the legality of the claim repre-
sented by the items in the bill.
The last Legislature passed law by
which insanity cases were taken out OF
the Jurisdiction of the Justice courts and
/ placed in that OF the Superior Court. In
the face of this, during April and
| May OF this year. Justice Dwyer heard
nine insanity omplaiDts. and turned his
bills into the District Attorneys office Tor
| $27 for the same. These each received tha
| certihcation that the claim was illegal on
its face" the signature being "B. A. Her
! rington, per H. L. Partridge, deputy" A
similar claim was allowed to Justice Her.
rim gton, a brother of District Attorney
Harrington, in May OF this year, the bill
bearing the same certitication as that on
the Dwyer claims.
There is no provision under the State
statutes for the ayment of any fee to JUS
tices of the Peace for trying persons
charged with being intoxicated. During
the years of 1895 and 1896 Justice Baggs
submitted to the District Attorneys Office
bills for twenty such cases. charging the
county 500 These were certified to III the
usual way and the amount duly collected
by Beggs.
When these matters were called to the
attention of the District Attorney in his
Office to-day he said the certification OF
these claims was usually attended to by
one OF his deputies, H. L. Partridge, and
that they were not directly brought to his
notice. Upon being asked if his deputies
were properly qualified for the duties to
which they were assigned he replied that
he thought they were. He then proceeded
to explain why. in his opinion, the bills
in these particular cases had been passed
as illegal on their face" when in fact they
were not.
1.-The Legislature of the State of Califor-
nia," said District Attorney Harrington,
enacted a lengthy and complicated in
sanity law at its last session, which took
away from the Justices of the Peace the
right to receive insanity complaints.
From the day that law went into effect
until the publication and delivery of the
statutes which contained the law, there
was a lapse of time wherein Justices of
the Peace were ignorant of the new in
sanity statute because of the non-delivery
of the statutes. They therefore continued
to receive insanity complaints after the
statute went into effect, and for them they
charged $3 for each com plant, that being
exactly the same charge made under the
law before The enactment of the last Legis-
ture."
"Did not this office receive the chapters
of the new laws as fast as they were
printed at Sacramento during the session
OF the Legislature 2" was asked.
"No, sir, we did not"
In reference to the charges made and
allowed for cases of drunkenness the Dis
trlct Attorney made the following expla-
nation: "Beggs claims that the cases of
drunkenness are misdemeanors, being dis
turbances of the peace, and that he there
fore had right to collect for them.
Were the questions as to the validity
OF the charges made for the trying of
these two kinds of cases raised and called
to your attention at anv time before these
matters were before the Grand Jury was
asked
mo, sir.''
1t is known that a month at least BE-.