Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1899-05-16
The Jury Was Out But = Short
Time sstors an Agrse-s NJ
lnant Was Reached. q ssiss
ABRoUI is lGAlI, TURNED down.
Very Little Evidenos to Justify
the Officers Conduct IN.
tho Affair. 's@

g. BOurass4, arrested on 4 charge Of
Interfering with and obstructing an
omcer III the discharge OF hisl duty,
after 4 trial before q Jury, was ac-
quilted, and that the Jury believed
strongly In the justice OF the de-
iendant's position IL evident from
the fact that only two ballots were
necessary to an agreement. the flrst
standing II to in favor Of acquittal,
and the second one unanimous, OF
, course, In favor Of the defendant.
Some difficulty was experienced by
the officer In finding the jury as 1t
was struck and the taking Of
testimony did not begin until about
5 O'Clock Friday afternoon, the day
set for trial. The witnesses examined
for the prosecution were Officer
Heroux, r. E. Hall, J. r. McKenna.
John vertin, Louis Vasaly, G. D..
Auyer and T. j. MathiesoD. Mr..
Hall was not q witness to the affair,
but was called to give evidence in re-
gard to legality Of Officer HerOux's
appointment as an 'f1cer, which
was questioned by the defense. The
defense objected to that portion of
:. Officer Heroux's testimony wherein
he stated that he was acting In the
capacity Of an officer. The prOsecu.
ton then produced the records of
the city clerks Office to prove that
Mr.. Heroux was a duly qualified Of.
ficer. The defense objected to the
admission OF these records as evid-
ence and ask the court to rule on the
question of the authority Of the Of
f1cer. This Justice Sheldon refused
to do. stating that that was ques-
ton for q higher court to decide.
He said the jury was the Judge In
this case of the law az well as the
facts. and the defense could argue
that point. II he chose to, with the
jury. The evidence was admitted.
or all the other witnesses called by
the state, only one fully sustained
the evidence given by the COM
plainant, ,Ofncer ,Her0ux. That one
was John Vertin. and while no one
doubted for an instant that Mr..
Vertin was giving bis version Of the
the affair as he saw 1t, 1t was very
evident that he was mistaken and
somewhat confused on certain points.
j. p. McKenna testified substantial
" the same az did Mr.. BOurassa and
all other witnesses for the defense.
Mr.. Auyer saw but little OF the fracas
in which Mr.: Bourassa was, mixed
up, and Mr.. Mathies0n stated that
he only knew that there was some
kind OF a row, but did not even
know who the participants were I'M
til after the affair was over.
The contention of the defense was
that Mr.. Bourassa. believing bis
son to be in danger of receiving
severe injuries or possibly being
killed, had u perfect right to inter-
fere to protect his son; that he only
used such force and interfered only
to such an extent al he thought
necessary to protect his son. In
support Of this position there was a
large number Of witnesses who
testified positively to hearing Mr..
Bourassa tell the officer not to strike
the boy, and that he '(his father)
would assist the officer in making
tho arrest. The testimony for the
defense also showed that the officer
made no attempt to arrest the boy
at the time of the alleged inter-
ference on the part Of his father, he
fore he hogan to club the boy with
his billy. ''. "
The court room was filled through
ont the entire trial, and many who
heard all the evidence in the case
predicted the outcome Of the trial,
being convinced that the prosecu-
tion had not made out q good case
against the defendant, and that
Officer Heroux utterly failed to
Justify BY other witnesses his con-
duct on that occasion. Z,
The st. Cloud street fair associa-
ton has elected officers for, the COM
ing year. 9. 3. aayill e PRESIDENT d g
The supreme court has decided
that st. Cloud cannot assess the
credits OF the foreign loan companies,