The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-02-18
MAGGIE MOORE IS FREE
1t Took the Jury Only Fifteen
Minutes to Decide.
CHARGED WITH GRATING
The County Attorneys Office Wished to
Make a Case That Would Be
Warning, but the Jurors
Wouldn't Have 1t.

i torneys office to convict a GaIena
! street CRATER resulted in failure Mag
/ gle Moore, the woman who has been
/ under arrest on the charge of touch
! ing Jacob Sample, an old sheepherder
| for $50 on the 10Th of last December
was tried before jury in Judge Clan
| cys court yesterday and was acquitted.
1 The prosecution was conducted by
| Chief Deputy Connolly and the defense
! by M. l.. Wines.
Sample was the only witness for the
/ state and Maggie Moore was the only
one to testify in her own behalf. Sam
pie repeated the story he told when
| his deposition was taken. He said he
was a sheepherder by occupation, and
that on the 18th of December he landed
in Butte from Big Timber, having
made the trip in boxcar with num-
Der of other tourists. Upon landing in
Butte he inquired his way to Galena
street and visited a woman named Es-
telle. He had heard that the women on
that street were clever pickpockets, and
when he left the place he determined
to find out If he had been ROBBED. He
found 5000 in his tobacco pouch and
| went away. He next dropped into a
notorious saloon and later walked by
Maggie Moore's den. she invited him
in. RE accepted the invitation and re-
manned in the house lew moments,
during which time the woman sat on
his lap. He said he pushed her hand
away from his pocket several times.
When he left he examined his tobacco
pouch again, and all there was left in
1t was 5-cent piece. he tried to get
back into the house but found the
door locked. He reported the matter
to the policeman on that beat, but. the
officer wouldn't do anything, and Sam
pie went to police headquarters and
reported to the captain, who had the
woman arrested the next morning on
charge of conducting a house of
prostitution She pleaded guilty TO that
and was fined, but Sample was not
county attorney, who had the woman
arrested for grand larceny.
At the conclusion OF Samples teSti-
mony Mr. Connolly offered to dig up
Samples old pair of oyeralls, which he
discarded when he left jail and intro
jected. He said he had made a de-
duce them in evidence. MIR. Wines OBJ
nland for the pants at the time the
deposition of Sample was taken and
they We're refused him, and he now OBJ
Jected to having them dug out of an
ash barrel and brought into court. The
judge ruled the pants out.
In his opening statement to the jury
Mr.. Wines said the defendant knew
nothing about Sample. and she was
not in position to deny the expert
ence he had on Galena street that
night. If she did see him, and she
did not remember that she did, he was
at her place before II o'clock. and not
after that hour as he testified If he
returned and found the door locked
and was not admitted it was because
the door locked with a spring and he
made no demonstration to gain admit
lance.
The defendant was then put on the
stand, and after giving her place of
abode and occupation. she declared
she had never seen Sample until she
met him in the county attorneys office
when Samples deposition was taken
some weeks ago. She could not re-
member having ever seen him before.
She was sure he was not at her crib
after L o'clock that night, because she
was not there after that hour. She left
her house at 10 minutes TO Il and went
to restaurant, after which she went
to her room in the Newport. where she
wrote letter to her little girl, who is
somewhere in school, and she did not
return to her crib again that night. If
Sample went to the place and found
the door locked, and she was in, she
did not open the door because he did
not make himself known, and it was
a common thing for drunken men and
lena street dens, and she did not re-
spond She said that the first she
knew of the alleged robbery was the
morning after it occurred when she
was called from her room by an officer
and taken to the city jail, where a
charge of conducting a house of pros
titution was placed against her. When
she was taken into police court she
told the judge she could not deny it.
and was fined SIS and costs. a few
minutes after she left the police court
she was re-arrested on the charge of
grand larceny for robbing Sample, and
she has been in the county jail ever
since. On cross-examination the wom-
an denied that she had admitted to Mr.
Connolly that she had seen Sample
that night, and also denied that she
had ever been convicted of a felony.
That concluded the testimony, and
Mr.. Connolly made a brief address To
the jury and argued that the testi- /
mony was strong enough TO warrant /
conviction of the defendant, whose I
robbery of old Sample was a cold |
blooded proposition. and there was |
nothing to appeal TO the sympathies of I
the jury
Mr.. Wines followed with an argu- |
ment on the impossibility of woman, |
while sitting on a mans lap, to reach |
in his pocket take out tobacco |
pouch, extract $50 and then return the /
pouch 10 the pocket without the mans |
knowledge Mr.. Wines referred TO the I
defendants little girl at school, and I
Maggie put her handkerchief to her |
eyes and kept 1t there during the re- |
mainder of Mr.. Wines argument. but |
she did not cry. 1t was rank bluff. |
Mr.. Wines said Sample was in other |
places before he visited as he claimed,
the defendant and might have been
robbed by his friend Estelle. He |
stopped in the most notorious grating
saloon in Butte, and there were many /
heIIe I