The Meeker herald., 1897-08-07
OVERS Is INDICTED
BY HIS OWN GRAND JURY
He La Ch.rRsa With Failure te Prepssiy
Enforce the Laws Of the stats-asys the
Findings Are an lssalt to the Csass aad
tho Indictments the Rsssls ef Ig1s-
rance.

/ Ieadvilles principal thOrOughfare. to-
night. One and all are discussing pro
and con the sensational ending OF the
special session of the special grand
! jury empaneled by Judge Overs about
{, two weeks ago. The jury made It's
was again called In session at and
met tonight at 8 o'clock, when It was
discharged. The meeting was full Of
sensational incidents, the greatest Of
| which is without doubt that of the
/, finding of two indictments against
Frank w. Overs, the judge Of the Dis
trict Court, who empaneled the Jury.
OF course. at this time the men who
have been indicted have not yet been
molested. and therefore their names
have not been made public. How
ever. from the report made by the Jury
1t is evident that the leading county
and city officials and some OF the lead
ing citizens here who have figured
| conapicuOusly In the political world
have been indicted and will be ar
rested ms soon as capias can be Issued.
Although nothing can be learned
definitely as to the number Of indct-
ments returned, 1t is thought that
there are between thirty AM forty.
| and from the tone of the report Of the
grand jury, several of the county com
| missioNcrs, the mayor ans other
prominent city and county officials are
Included in the list of men inflicted.
| In Its report the grand jury says:
I'VE earnestly and diligently tried
In the limited time. and with the very
limited amount Of unsatisfactory le-
gal assistance that could be placed at
our disposal to investigate all the viO-
lations of the law which have come to
our knowledge. While lawlessness is
unfortunately very prevalent. we fail.
after careful investigation. to find that
1t is more so than during the two pre-
vious years of your honor's admins
tration. We cannot attribute the
present lawlessness to ether causes
than such as have prevailed for long
period of our city's history. The most
potent of these causes is the general
acceptance by the community of the
dangerous doctrine that the statutes
OF the state are to be enforced or not
according to the judgment or consent
OF officials who have sworn to enforce
all the laws. This doctrine his been
| pushed to such an extreme tiat for
| many years the whole community has
been made to aid and abet crime. and
count on the filling OF the pu,bic cof-
fers with money raised on the demor-
4 aliZation and debasement of human
beings.
I'VE regret that under yo1r hon
or's instructions the only WY Open
to us to arraign this dangerous doc
trine is to bring Indictment against
men who individually are entirely op-
posed to 1t, and are victims Of pernI-
cious precedent.
With regard to gambling, the re-
| ceat visoro~s "s,iUu taA-u AT the In
stiga tiOn Of the court leaves II as sur
main duty to make plain where the
responsibility Of this crime ultimately
rests. We have endeavOred to slow
this In our indictments. As ySur
honor states in your charge. the fhd-
ing OF gambling parnphernalia in
actual use Ia sufficient evidence to
bring In an indictment for gambling.
We believe that with regard to own
ers and agents of houses knowingly
rented for this purpose, the court has
sufficient evidence to proceed against
them In the regular way.
while we agree with your honor as
to the demoralizing effect of gambling,
we believe it to be our duty to exam
Inc into the legal rather than the
moral aspect. We note your instnc-
tions not to overlook any form of to-
lation OF the law. and In this connec-
tion call your attention to the open
and fragrant defiance OF the law with
regard to Sunday closing OF saloons.
We feel 1t our duty to exercise our con-
deinnation by indicting those whom
we hold to be primarily responsible.
There are also certain places in the
county. not under the Jurisdiction OF
city otficinls, where this law is sys-
tematically defied. A short dIstafce
outside OF the city limits, at a place
called Ellesmere. is not only the Sun
day law defietl, but wine rooms and
other objectionable features have
made the place known as the first
stepping stone for the downfall Of
young women
The report then goes on to state that
contrary to law they find that the coun-
ty commissioners have been trading in
county warrants. The warrant book
shows that this has been carried on ia
such an extent that from one fund
alone the amount of $4,000 has in one
| year passed through the hands of com.
missfoners, or their employees, or mem.
bers Of their families. They also found
that considerable sums OF county
money are voted for work and supplies
Tor which no steps are taken to secure
bids. and that the same has been q
heavy loss to the county.
They further find that the supplying
of provisions has been allowed TO one
member Of the Board OF County Com.
missioners without any contract, and
that this business alone in one yeal
has amounted to $1,000. They further
find that money has been voted to indi
viduals with recklessness, and In one
instance $500 was voted to regular
salaried official for extra services, thu
jury being unable to find any itemi1ed
bill for such services, or. to lind that
the bill had passed the Inspection oi
the finance committee.
The grand jury visited the county
and city jails. They found the count
jail In fine condition. hut that the city
jail failed to reveal single commend
able point. 1T is a badly constructed
foul and malarious den. utterly unA,
for human occupancy. disgrace to /