The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-12-14

This exposure occurred before the al
journment of the last Grand Jury, put l
understand that they did not inveStlsale
it, and took no action rms may pe ou
cause the Court did not call their atlen-
ton to the matter. Ii Is now caleu ~
your attention for your lnvesusaisSiohl ht
Whatever may be the result 1t should pc
investigated by you, and II any aps az
ton and conversion of the FUNDS OF tue
Water Department OF the CITY OF Jsases ee
City by the official referred TO. IS Iounu
to have existed. he should be promptly
indicted. So far as the matter mas been
presented to the Court. there appears 70
be but little question of the ABSTRACTION
of these monies, and to allow the matler
to stand without investigation ana prop
er action would be absolutely cenSurapie.
There may be an explanation o. the mat
ter which has not reached the court, Dut
it is entirely needless for the Court 10 IN
struct this Grand Jury of the necessity
of the prompt apprehension OF uelauitiis
public officials.
There is another matter which you
should take up%as promptly as possible,
and inves tigate just as soon as you can
possibly make it convenient to DO SO. The
Evening Journal q responsible news
paper, published in Jersey City, having
large circulation in this county ana IN
this State, owned, published and con
trolled by men of responsibility fand m
telligence, has, in its issue of December
II, instant, in an article OF great lengln'
and with great detail of circumstances,
charged a high official of this county,
the Assistant Prosecutor of the Pleas,
with having received a br1pe as pubic
officer in the prosecution of his pubic
duties. The charge is distinctly ana pos
itively made, with proof of great direct
ness as to the transaction, naming the
amount paid and other circumstances.
which, if true, reveal shocking state OF
insensibility to the law and official morals
on the part of that official. 1t is charged
directly that a large sum of money was
paid him for his influence and official
action in aiding a convicted prisoner TO
escape the punishment for his crime. II
tod 70 40
out his agreement to do so, and in 90
ing so he was TO delude and deceive the
Court of which he was trusted oIllciai'
to do this he was TO deceive ana deluae
a court which reposed the utmost conn
dence in him. He was to betray nlmseI
and betray the honorable court IN Whlch
he was acting in the capacity Oh the Fros-
ecutor of the Pleas. The Court cannot
and does not wish to characterize IN NJ
ting terms, the atrocious misconduct OF
this official We can only hope that II
is a mistake and not true, although the
details arise from such responsible
source as to give little hope in that dlrec-
ton.
You will Investigate this transaction.
The presiding Judge of the Court of Gen
eral Quarter Sessions has requested thls
Court to lay this matter before your
body The Prosecutor of the pleas OF
this county has expressly Joined in re-
quest for investigation of this charge:
This Court presents it to you, as the most
% mater mat tey wheh YPu the w aefs are re-
found by you as stated in the article IN
the Journal it will your duty to pre-
sent an appropriate Indictment against
him for misconduct in his high office, and
also another indictment against him and
the other attorney-at-law named in the
article, as aiding and assisting in perpe-
trating this nefarious scheme, for con-
spiracy to pervert and obstruct the course
of justice and the due administration OF
the law.
If these charges are baseless-if the
material facts as stated in the article are
false and untrue-then the authors and
publishers of this article should be in
dicted for criminal libel. If the charge
is a true one then the publication is
justified in the interest Of the decent ade /
ministration of criminal justice. But II
the article be false and untrue, then the
libel becomes an offense of far greater
enormity than the offense with which the
public official is charged, an offense for
which the law provides no adequate PEN
atty or punishment.
The attention of the Grand Jury was
also called to the manner in which the
various municipalities of the county are
conducting their official business as crlt1-
cized by the public press.