The herald., 1897-04-29
The Defendant Goes to State S
Prison for Life
INSURANCE CLAIMS FOR $4,000
a YOUNG COUPLE GET MARRIED
AT SEA
Mrs. Gyorgji Divorced From Dead
Man-Absurd Attempt to Send
Boy to Whittier-Rosedale
Cemetery Damages

AS a result or the lnNestlS SatioH iiie'Ns
regarding the mutilation of the grand
Jury report, Robert Snowden, the Will
lom court reporter of the Record, Ian
guishes in jail.
Yesterday morning he was arrested
bv Constable Yonkin, on a complaint
sworn to by F. A. Coleman, court re-
porter Of the Times, and filed in the
township court. During the morning
he was arraigned, and his examination
set for Saturday next, his bail being set
at $1,000 Bondsmen were not forthcom-
ing. and the defendant was remanded
to jail
The offense charged against Snowden
Is that on April goth he did steal, re-
move, secrete and destroy certain part
and norton of a certain record and pa
per filed in the superior court of said
court and state, and deposited in the
office of the county clerk of said court,
to wit: one page of the official report
of the grand jury of said county as pre-
sented and filed in SAID court on the
goth day of April, 1897"
The offense charged is a felony, and
the prosecution will be taken under two
sections of the penal code which have
direct reference 10 the offense now al
legged to have been committed by Snow
den. These sections are as follows:
"Sec 11S. Every officer having the
custody of any record, map or book, or
of any paper of proceeding of any court
filed or deposited in any public office
Ii. L. .l-f fAx.
who is guilty of stealing, willfully de-
stroying, mutilating, defacing, altering
or falsifying, removing or secreting the
whole or any part of such record, map,
book, paper or proceeding, or who per-
mits any other person to do so, is pun
ishable by Imprisonment in the state
prison not less than one nor more than
fourteen years.
Sec ia. Every person not an Of
ficer such as is referred to in the pre-
ceding section, who is guilty of any of
the acts specified in that section, is
punishable by Imprisonment in the state
prison not exceeding five years, or in
a county Jail not exceeding one year,
or by fine not exceeding S100, or by
BOTH
Much discussion was occasioned in
and about the court house yesterday
when it became noised about that Snow
den had been arrested. No facts have
rublicly developed beyond those al
ready published in The Herald.
w. C. Mullen, who accompanied
Snowden when the latter looked over
the sheets of the report, which were be-
ing copied by Kidd and Knight, the
Express and Herald reporters, was seen
yesterday and said that while he was
present at the time and Snowden was
looking over the pages, he saw nothing
out of the way, and the news of the
alleged theft and the arrest came as
great surprise to him.
AS for Snowden himself he yesterday
resolutely refused to talk. 1t is un-
derstood, however, that the law firm of
Davis & Rush will undertake his de-
fense.
While it has only an indirect bearing
on the offense now charged against
him, the fact is not without Importance
or interest that his previous record has
not been of the very best. 1t is not un-
common for a young fellow, after devel-
oping a loose and rackety habit, to
proclaim himself a newspaper man, and
Imagine ne - SlppllS llt SWtetS VI I'o-
hemia while indulging in reprehensible
deviltry AS a matter of fact Snowden
is hardly entitled to be classed with
newspaper men at all. Apart from odd
work on the daily papers, his expert
ence is said to be limited to work on
the old-time Telegram, noted in its day
for It's salacious stories and blackmail-
ing proclivities.
Under date of May 3, 1894, Robert
Snowden, a native of New York, aged
25 years and a resident of Pasadena.
obtained a license to wed Miss Ella Pat
ton, a native of Kansas, aged 50 years.
His marital experience was said to have
been somewhat varied, by no means mot
notopous, and not particularly credita-
BILE to him. At later date he suffered
arrest in San Francisco for having, it
was charged, appropriated lady's jew
elry etc. Altogether Snowden's record
is not of the best and ii is claimed that
the instances cited above are not the
only ones in which he cut an uneviable
figure.
Meantime he is in Jail, and just ex-
actly how the matter stands will not
develop until the examination on Sat
urday.