The herald., 1898-10-25
A CAMPAIGN SlANDER
ATTACK UPON JUDGE VAN DYKE
FULLY REFUTED
His Action in Admitting a Street
Outcast to Bail Was Grossly
Misrepresented

terday morning in the Times. The statement
was to the effect that the judge, at the re-
quest of Tom Savage, had admitted to bail
one Pearl Lesley, a street outcast, at a late
hour Saturday night, having been found at
fusion melting i'll the wigwam by Savage
and induced 10 sign an order for her release.
The intimation was made that the action
was the result of the judges desire to do
politics, and that the police described the
occurrence as something not customary.
A perfect explanation OF this attack Is
found in the fact that Judge Van Dyke, so
long distinguished for his upright character
and conscientious performance OF judicial
duty, has been nominated by the Demo
Gratis, the Peoples party and the Silver Re-
publicans as one of their candidates Tor as
socate justice of the state supreme court.
Such an attack on Judge Van Dyke is par
ticularly cruel and unjustifiable, tor If there
is one magistrate in the state who Is pune
.lious in his demeanor and in his Judicial
actions he is the man. His explanation of
the matter is perfectly clear, and it's cor
rectness is vouched for by e. w. kinsey,
clerk of the police court, who had the mat
ter in charge. When asked yesterday re-
garding the matter, Judge Van Dyke said:
II was not at the wigwam Saturday night,
rs the article in question said was, at the
time of signing the order, but at my house,
32l South Olive street. Clerk kinsey of the
police court, as l supposed, called me up by
telephone and asked me ii l would sign an
order admitting vagrant to bail, 1T being
impossible at that hour, 10 o'clock, to find
Justice Owens or Morrison. told him
that | would if he could find no one else
within half hour. Shortly afterward he
came up with the papers, which were all
made out, and he told me it was customary
! tlo hop fnr hon Com thic ho,ru n
prly case of vagrancy. | asked him if the
sureties were satisfactory, and he said they
were good for that amount, and signed the
order. 1t was merely to accommodate the
clerk, neither of the city justices being at
hand.
II have no doubt much account will be
made of my action in this case. Very likely
It was telegraphed out last night and you
will see it floating around through the
newspapers between now and the election
1t is however, the first time since l have
been upon the bench that my integrity has
been brought into question. The facts of
the case were as | have stated them.
was not induced by personal considerations
to the slightest extent in signing the or
der. Everyone is entitled to bail on such
charges as vagrancy, and there was no one
else at hand to iiX the amount.
''It is the constitutional right of every
person, no matter whether he be an outcast
or a millionaire, to be admitted to bail on
oil except certain most serious charges,
which are specified, and no magistrate can
refuse such application any more than he
can decline to issue a writ of habeas corpus
ON the proper presentation. That is all
there is in the case, and | am astonshed
that even during political campaign
should be misrepresented in such mat
ter"
Mr.. Kinsey Indignantly denounced the
Times article as being clearly perversion
OF the facts, which he related as follows:
The woman was arrested and was not
prepared to furnish cash bail, but some OF
her friends desired to file a bail bond for
her appearance. Justice Owens was. at
Whittier and Justice Morrison was on his
way home from San Francisco. Before tee
phoning to Judge Van Dyke an attempt was
made to reach by telephone several of the
other superior court judges, but none of
them responded, and Judge Van Dyke was
called up and the matter was explained
briefly to him. He said if we could find no
other judge in the course of half hour he
would sign the order for the release of the
woman on bond if the sureties were salts
factory. Accordingly | made out bond in
the sum of 5000, which was signed by Joe
Nage and NJ. j. johnson, who qualified in
that amount.
''Not being able to find any other Judge,
] took the bond up to Judge Van Dyke at
his house-not at the wigwam-and submit
ted it to him for his approval. He asked
il the sureties were responsible, and told
him they We're good for the amount of the
bond and that l had indicated $500 as the
amount, thinking that was ample in sim
pie case of vagrancy. He signed it and l
took it back. The attempt to make it ap-
pear that there was any irregularity in the
proceedings can only be attributed to a
desire to make political capital of it,
Thomas Savage, eX-councilman from the
Eighth ward, angrly exclaimed that his
name had been mentioned by the Times on
Two occasions previously in connection with
such cases as this of the Lesley woman, and
That on both occasions that paper had after
wards apologized. He went on to say that
he was not acquainted with the Lesley wo
man, did not know she had been arrested
or anything about the case un-
hl he saw his name in the Times write
up, and added, furthermore, that he had no
acquaintance with Judge Van Dyke and
had never spoken to him.
In this connection it may be well to state
that Judge Van Dyke says he has attended
only one political meeting during the cam
paign, his feelings with respect to the ap
pearance of candidate for judicial place
being decidedly opposed to such unbecom-
ing conduct The one exception to which
he alluded was when he went to hear an old
iriend speak, and the charge that he had
oeen found at such gathering and asked
TO sign the bond of the Lesley woman was
IN additional offense