The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-03-21
REPRIMANDED THE DETECTIVE
POLICE COMMISSION GAVE GOD
BOLD A HEARING.

The Detective Charged With At
tempting to SubOrn "a Witness in
the Sullivan and O'NeilI Case and
Afterwards Prosecuting n COIOred
Woman for Revealing the Fact 10
Solicitor General OsbOrne-The
Matter Brought to the Attention of
the Commission by the Solicitor
General-The Charges Not Sustnin-
ed, But the Detective Ordered Rep
rimanded for IndiscretiOn.
The police commission held a lengthy
session last night, the greater part of it
was devoted to hearing charges against
Detective Godbold. preferred by Solicitor
General Osborne.
The charge grew out of the Sullivan
ONelll murder trial in the superior court.
Detective Godbold was charged at the
time with having taken a very active in
terest in behalf of Sullivan and O'Neill,
going to the extent of aiding their attor-
neys in picking the jury.
Shortly before the trial Ivory Ponder,
a notorious woman, living on the eastern
| end of Hull street, had been to the solicit
| tive Godbold had been to her house and
endeavored to prevail upon her man, Jim
| Spanker, to so upon the witness stand and
| give certain testimony in behalf Of Sulli-
van and O'NeiH. The proposition was
| agreeable to Spanker, she said, but when
| he told her of il, she told him If he went
on the stand and perjured himself IN
| favor of white men who had killed a ne
l,n inf he
eral Spanker was not produced as a wit
ness at the trial by the defense, and the
| solicitor general was deprived of an OPP
portunity of exploding a bombshell
little later Spanker and the Ponder
woman had a desperate fight, and were
| both arrested In police court the next
morning they were fined $40 each by Re
corder Wilson. Ivory paid her fine, out
Spanker went out TO the gang. The wo-
man told Recorder Wilson that the fight
| had been due to Spanker's anger when
| he learned of the information that she had
| given to the solicitor general. Learning
from Mr.. Osborne that the woman had
| given such Information the recorder re-
mitted the fine and her money was re-
| turned
The Ponder woman now complains that
on account of the information given by
| her to the solicitor general she Is being
prosecuted by the detectives and that they
have made threats against her. Her
house has been searched twice recently
by the detectives without cause, she says.
She Informed the solicitor general Of this
persecution, as she thought, and the So
licitor took steps 20 protect her by prefer
ring charges to the police commission
against Detective Godbold.
Recorder Wilson and Solicitor Gen.
eral Osborne were present at the investi-
cation. A number of witnesses were eX-
amined and the meeting did not adjourn
until nearly midnight. The Ponder wo-
man told her story substantially as sta
| ted. Detective Godbold denied both
charges, both as to suborning Spanker
and prosecuting the Ponder woman. He
stated that the Ponder woman was n no.
torious character. under suspicion OF be-
| ing wanted IN another city, and that her
| house was a resort OF the lowest charac-
| ters. one white man had been arrested
/ from her house and given three months
sentence for larceny and since serving his
sentence has again been making her
| house his headquarters. Several burgla-
| ries have been committed In the city and
the party being suspected, II was decided