The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-11-24
STORY LOST PAPER.
An Agreement '. nich Will Not Rise
to Haunt ANY One.

It has just leaked out why Albert
Perry did not produce. at the Elliott
and MOxcey habeas corpus cases in the
court of appeals last week, the signed
statement of Frank Elliott, which he
claimed to have, in which Mr. Elliott
is alleged to have agreed to retract the
statements he published about Mr.. Per
~, for which he was prosecuted for
criminal libel. The reason was because
Mr. Elliott had the agreement in his
pocket at the time
While Mr. Elliott was on the witness
stand, on cross examination, Mr.. Perry
asked him if he did not sign an agree
ment to publish a statement that the
article he had previously published
about Mr.. Perry was false, and to pay
the costs of the libel suit in cOnsidera-
ton for which the suit against him was
to be dismissed. Mr. Elliott replied
that he agreed to pay the costs and to
say in his paper that the article about
Mr.. Perry was published without his
consent but not that the article was
false.
Mr.. Perry then became excited and
tried to corner Mr.. Elliott in acknowl-
edging that the statement was as he,
Perry, said. Mr.. Elliott persistently re-
fused to admit it, and at length Judge
Mahan interrupted by saying that the
statement itself would show what the
agreement was and that it could be in
trOduced as evidence
Mr.. Perry, confident that he had the
Troy editor trapped in a faIsehood,
Owed his hand into his pocket to get
the agreement. 1t was not there. He
said nothing, but he hunted through
all his papers. His search was without
success, and the agreement was not
introduced, although Mr.. Perry never
stated why.
It seems that during the afternoon
preceding the hearing Mr.. Perry had
been in the office of the clerk of the
Shawnee county district court, and in
taking some other papers from his
pocket had dropped the Elliott agree
a
? Sometime after I. S. Curtis deputy
clerk of the district court, picked it up,
saw it was some sort of a, court paper
and laid it on a table with other papers
The agreement was labeled. State of
Kansas vs.. Frank Elliott" Some one
else picked it up from the table, saw
what it was, took it into the court of
appeals, and gave it to J. A. McDer-
mott, deputy clerk of the court Mr.
McDermOtt saw the label and without
looking at the contents, he thought it
had something to do with the habeas
corpus case. and he put it with the
papers in that case.
It happened that the papers in the ha-
beas corpus case were lying on the ia
bic for use in the hearing when it
began, and one of Mr.. Elliott's attor-
neys was the first person to find the
agreement. He promptly took possess
sion Of it and turned it ove- to Mr. FL
lott, Mr.. Perry being all of the time
unconscious of it's loss.
Both Mr.. Perry and County Attorney
s NJ Brewster say they were aStOunded
when Mr.. Elliott denied having signed
the statement as they claimed it to be-
because they were confident they had
the statement to prove their version of
it, Mr.. Elliott, however, knew other
wise.
It is said that Mr.. Perry threatens to
make trouble for whoever is RESPONSE
bic for the agreement falling into Mr.
Elliotts hands, but it is difficult to see
what can be done about it The paper
had never been filed in the DOniphan
county district court, so that it belongs
to no court papers, and as Mr.. Perry
lost it in the first place, he mas no re-
course but to submit.
so far as I am concerned" said Mr.
McDeTmOtt, 7 did not not know what
the document was until after Elliott
was on the stand. When it was brought
into me did not read it, but as it was
labeled as a legal document with
Frank EIliOtt's name mixed in with it.
I supposed it had something to do with
the habeas corpus case, and so natural
ly put it with the rest of the habeaS
CORPUS naneTS' -