The herald., 1898-01-12

RITCH is TRIED
On Charges Preferred by a
Chinaman
BY THE POLICE COMMISSION
ALL DAY SESSION DEVOTED TO
HEARING EVIDENCE
BY THE POLICE COMMISSION
George c. Lem Chained That the Po-
\ liceman Had Exceeded His Au-
thority-osicers Speak

The board Of police commissioners re
solved itself into qu,asi-court yesterda
and spent half of it's morning session i
the investigation of the charges whic
had been presented against Patrolma
]. II. Ritch by George c. Lem. The lat
ter is an Americanized Chinaman, VIII
has been in the United States for twent,
years and in Los Angeles twelve years
He is a man of more than ordinary in
telligence and has amassed quite for
tune. At the last meeting of the boart
he filed charges against Ritch in tn,
form of an affidavit. In it he asserted
that on December q Fitch came to hi
place of business and. without author
fly of law, searched through his privat
papers for lottery tickets, threw papers
upon the floor. and finally carried of
two letter files. A few evenings lateI
Lem asserted that Ritch met him on the
street and after violently searching
him, placed him under arrest, but later
released him without taking him to the
police station.
w. G. Gordon, a broker, was LENS
first witness. He was in LENS store
when Ritch came in. He said the police
man swore at Lem and at Cinnamon in
general and accused him of running a
lottery joint. Witness had seen no tick
cts and never knew of LENS selling
them.
r1,o tr-oe- i,,+ vi,
at the same time, made the same state
ment. He had tried to purchase tickets
of Lem, but the latter had denie hav-
ing them for sale, or at all.
Major w. C. Furrey appeared to testi-
fly as to LENS character He had
known him for years: had had many
business dealings with him and had
found him honest and in all respects
superior to the average members of his
race. He did not believe that Lem sold
tickets. Major Furrey asserted that
there were too many cases in which the
Chinese were prosecuted, and declared
they should be treated with more consid-
GRAFTON by the police.
Frank Seger and H. Ferguson had
seen the arrest of Lem by Ritch and
said the Chinaman protested. They had
seen nothing in his actions which
seemed to justify his arrest.
John Alton of the Farmers and Mer-
chants bank had known Lem eleven
years, and stated that he had always
borne the best of regulations He had
to be lottery dealer.
orla
to LENS good character and as TO the
order he maintained in his place of bus
mess. S. II. Henderson, formerly with
the Times, swore that Lem was a good
citizen. He gave as his opinion that
Lem was being made a victim of some
persons spite and characterized his
treatment at the hands of the police as
an outrage.
In his own behalf Lem told of the
manner in which Ritch had treated him.
His story was in detail repetition of
what was contained in his affidavit. He
made his statement in an intelligent
manner and did not lose his temper. He
was closely questioned by Ritch and by
the members of the board. In regard to
the claim that had been made by the
police that they had found tickets in his
store on Apablasa street, Lem stated
that he owned three stores and spent
most of his time in his First street office
He had mo means of knowing what was
done in his absence at the other places
He denied that he had ever sold or dealt
in lottery tickets. One of his statements
was that he had been so prosecuted by
the police that had similar treatment
haa,, oiu of thar 1f la,
would have defended themselves with
bullets instead of filing charges. At the
conclusion of LENS testimony the COM
mission adjourned until o'clock.
The defense of Ritch consumed the
entire afternoon session. Count" Mug
nemi, a deputy constable, was the first
witness, and had all of the others been
like him Ritch would have had little
chance of remaining on the police force.
Mugnemi gave lot of hearsay evidence.
He said he had heard that Lem sold lot
terry tickets and had sent people there
to get them, but none of them had sue
ceeded in doing so. He could not re-
member the name of those so sent. He
swore that Mrs. O'Laverty, a restaurant
keeper, had told him she had secured
tickets of Lem.
The woman was called and not only
did she deny that she had told Mugnemi
that she had bought tickets, but she
denied ever having done so. She had
tried to Secure tickets from Lem but
had failed. She did not believe he sold
tickets. In vain did the Count try to
induce her to say that she had told him
she had made purchases there, but she
stuck to her story. "Well, if you want
to lie about it, / can't help it," said
Mugnemi, as she left the stand
Patrolman Harvey Davis, the next
witness, told what he had heard Of
LENS place in Chinatown. He said
the place was known as q lottery Joint
and the other Chinese were complaining
that Lem had ruined the business be-
cause he sold tickets elsewhere. The
officer could not swear that Lem had
ever sold tickets, but he had that repu-
tation. He knew that fan tan games
were run in LENS place, but could not
say that Lem was there at the time.
Officer Harris was an important wit
ness for the defense. AS he was being
sworn he placed upon the table a num-
ber of lottery tickets and on being asked
what he knew OF LENS place replied
az got these tickets there not more than
an hour ago. Officer Lenhausen and
myself went there and found the tickets
without searching very far"
The witness also told of games of fan
tan that had been played there, but ad-