The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-05-04
SHOWN Ry THE REPORT OF
DEPUTY PUBLIC EXAMINER
WEST.
GOV. CLouGH TO TAKE ACTION,
Advising the Hennepin County Com
missiOners to Have the Evils
Corrected at Once.


Gov. Clough.
1t is charged by the examiner that
Sheriff Alonzo Phillips, and his pred
ecessor, John E. Holmberg, charged
and continued to charge exorbitant
fees for various public services, and does
and did not keep the books Of their OF.
flee in form to show what the people
of the county are entitled to know.
Mr. West points out that too much
has been charged for the services Oh
subpoenas, for the summoning OF grand
and petit Jurors, and for the commit
ment of prisoners to the workhouse,
and of state charges to the various in
situations. Regular charges have been
made by the sheriff for taking care or
prisoners in the municipal court when
this work has always been attended
to by the police force, whose members
are paid salaries The sheriff has also
charged 81 per head for delivering pris-
oners to the workhouse, when by law
he is entitled only to so cents COM
mitment and eight cents a mile. Illegal
fees have been charged by him for the
service of personal property tax war
IdulS. ndlllOdo lcIl z los pSOil Sicll Sou
for prisoners when the law specifically
provides the fees shall be 81 for COM
mitment and eight cents per mile for
other expenses The sheriff has been
accustomed to charge up all expenses
connected with his trips to Chicago,
Kansas City and other points in neigh
boring states when the law does not
permit such a thing. Not only that,
but he has made it rule to charge for
warrants when the persons for whom
they were issued could not be found.
The sheriff has been charging 1.5O per
person for hack hire from the court
house to the Milwaukee depot, two
short blocks away, and no record has
been preserved of any case where the
officer and his charge walked this short
distance. At Red Wing, Faribault or
st. Peter, as the case happened, the
deputy, nameless usually, always
charged So for a full days board at
the hotel, when as matter of fact,
he never had occasion to take more
than one meal in either place, if that
The county provides the sheriff with a
lot of blanks free of cost and these
blanks it has been the custom of the
sheriff to sell to people who have been
so unfortunate as to have business with
his office. 1t thus appears that the
sheriff at least has been impartial in his
charges. He has got all he could out
of the private individuals as we'll as
out of the county.
Loose methods of doing business were
found in the clerk Of courts office, but
the report says that reform is to be
instituted there at once.
Public Examiner Kenyon says he will
advise the county commissioners 70
bring suit against the ex-sheriff and his
deputies to recover the money they
have Illegally charged the county for
services rendered and not rendered at
all. This letter will be written at the
direction of the governor, who says that
the case is of such importance as to
demand the fullest and most careful in
veStigatiOn.
The following are few instances
where illegal fees are charged and al
lowed by the county commissioners:
First. For serving a subpoena in the dis
trict court and in subpoenaing witnesses to
appear before the grand jury, the officer
charges in every instance which came to my
notice 80 cents for copy" of subpoena when
he is entitled to only 20 cents The bills in
these cases do not show who what per-
sons serve these papers for the sheriff and
in the majority of these cases the bills do
not show the mileage Travelled for each wit
ness, or where the service made, is
required by law.
Second The officer summoning the petit
and grand jurors in this county charges for
every juror summoned 30 cents for copy"
which is illegal. In the first place. the law
prescribing the manner of summoning the
jurors does not require the venire to be
served by copy. Section TIT, statutes of
in nrn no m n IN IN o.
the grand jury says the sheriff shall sum-
mon the persons so named in the venre "by
giving personal notice to each person, or by
leaving written notice at his place of resi-
dence.' Section $500 of the same statutes
says the petit jurors shall be drawn and sum-
moned at the same time and in the same
manner as is prescribed by law for the draw
ing and summonfng of grand jurors" The
fee fixed by law for performing this service Is
fixed by the special law of 1891, chapter 1913,
which reads as follows: "Summon:ng grand
cents mileage actually and necessarily trav-
eled in summoning said jurors. No one
will claim for moment that the officer can
have any other fee, and he certainly cannot
have additional fee,- so that whatever is
necessary to be performed by the sheriff to
| legally summon the said persons must be
performed for the fee fixed in said special
law. Attorney General Clapp held the same
to be the law in relation to copy in per-
forming the same service under the general
law. The bills for this service never show
l.
moned, or who performs the service.
Third found in looking over the files in
state cases that it is the practice, and has
been for long time, for the officer serving
a bench warrant to charge not only the legal
fee prescribed by law, to-wit, 81 for each
person arrested and cents per mile for each
mile travelled. but he charges and is allowed
the additional fee for bringing up. so cents
and 81 for attendance, which sum of $3.50
is an illegal charge and is for services not
performed on said warrant, and cannot be
oil {ho
has been charging the same fee. but calling
it "arrainging." 1t makes no difference what
it is called, there is no fee for bringing up
for trial or for arraignment, for the simple
season that such service is performed in open
court by the officer of the court, who gets his
per diem for such services. See 35 Minnesota
Reports, Hugh Connolly VS.. County Of Da-
kota. In the cases mentioned there is no ex-
animation mentioned in the law, and in
said decision the prisoner has been indicted
and a bench warrant issued, and the prisoner
has been arrested and brought into court on
that warrant, as the officer is commanded to
do. If there is no trial or examination there
cannot be any attendance, such as Is contem-
plated by the law.
above charge last mentioned was made often
upon a warrant l concluded to examine into
the same charges which are made In the
municipal court of the City of Minneanolis
by the same officer, and which are paid hv
the county. The charge of so cents for bring
ing up, and 81 for attendance are very fire.
quent, and often quite number of times for
the same day. I find these charges are made
for prisoners who have been committed by
the municipal court to the county jail and
who are required to be brought before said
court On the next day, or some future day. I
was informed by the officers Of said court that
the sheriff or bis deputies never attended
court with such prisoners during the trial or
examination Of such prisoners. The police or
officers Of that court perform that duty for
which they receive a salary; that after the
prisoners are brought up on the commitment
they are delivered to the officers of the said
court and they alone are responsible for said