The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1900-03-20
WEED ON TRIAL
Wrangle in Court Over the
Powers Of Police
Justices.
THAT S. P. C. A. CASE
Dewitt and Leake Discover
the Same Law in Differ
ent Books.

The preliminary hearing of a peculiar
case that affects every Justice of the
Peace in the State was held this morn
! ing in the First Criminal Court before
Police Justice Nevin. The case was that
in which Winfield Scott Weed, who has
been acting in the capacity of a Justice OF
| the Peace for number of years, was
| charged with mpersonating police Off
| Ger and obtaining money under false pre-
tences by Counselor Eugene Dewitt tor the
! State. Mr.. Weed was defended by Eu-
/ gene Leake. Both lawyers are young men
of ambition, and their efforts in this case
| show that each has a promising future.
The case is a most important one, giving
/ wide scope for the display of egal know
ledge and research
The case was adjourned until next Tues
day morning when Justice Nevin will rem
| der decision.
The case was opened by Mr.. Dewitt for
| the State, with the above charges against
Weed. His ground is that on February
| Is last, Weed, acting as a Justice of the
| Peace, sat in judgment on case brought
| by the Society for the Prevention OF
Cruelty to Animals against the New York
Fresh Tripe Company, for whom MI
| Dewitt is counsel in this State Constable
Rufus Peckam arrested driver employed
| by the New York Fresh Tripe Company,
4 for working a diseased horse and brought
| the man before Weed, who set date
| for examination a week after the arrest.
| Mr. Dewitt acted in the case for the de-
PENDANTS and served a protest week pc
| fore the trial on Weed, who disregarded
the protest and imposed fine of $3.50,
including costs of court.
The protest made was to the effect that
/ Weed had no jurisdiction in the matter
| and the claim was set forth that he was
| not even a Justice of the Peace. This
! claim was made on the ground that Weed
| had been elected to office in the Fourth
/ Ward and later removed from that ward.
| This action, under certain construction
/ of the laws of New Jersey. makes the
| commission of an officer who acts thus
vacant, and as Weed had removed from
! the ward in which he was elected prior
! to the date on which he sat in judgment
! on the case in question it is held that his
commission was vacant at that time
The Constitution of the State holds that
| any Justice of the Peace who shall re-
move from county in which he is elected
! shall forfeit his right to the office The
| laws of 1871 qualified this provision by
\ enacting that a ward may be considered
| a county.
Counsellor Leake conceded that his
client had been elected in the Fourth
| Ward. had removed, had tried the
case in question and had imposed the fine.
Then began the legal battle. Mr.. Dewitt
said that Weed had committed minis
! terial act which the laws of 1888 and OF
| 1893, denied him the right to commit. The
| case he said. was one which only the
| Criminal Courts could judge Justice
/ Neyin said that only Police Justice or a
Justice of the Peace especially empower
| ed to try S. P. c. A. cases, had any right
| to hear the particular case in question
| or any similar case.
| On behalf of Weed, Lawyer Leake
moved for dismissal of the charge of
obtaining money under false pretense
as it implied an intention to
defraud He claimed that there was no
| such intention. On the other hand the
State held that at least there was negli-
| gence and that this, according to decis-
ions rendered in higher courts, constitute
ed an intent in the eyes of the law.
In support of his contentious Counselor
Dewitt quoted an act passed by the Leg
| islature in 1871. He had copied the act on
paper and it was read. After the reading
was finished Mr.. Leake took law book
dater 1873 and remarked
"Now, Mr.. Dewitt has quoted the laws
| of 1871 He will undoubtedly admit that
! the laws of 1873 are more recent and we
have here law and he proceeded to
read exactly the same law Mr.. Dewitt
! had read.
"Why that is exactly the same as this,
said Justice Nevin, pointing to Mr.. Dew
/ tits copy of the law. An examination
/ showed that the laws of 1871 had been
| printed in 1878 and the book marked with
/ the year of publication.
Mr.. Leake said that an effort had been
made to get the case before the Grand
| Jury but that that body had refused to
consider it.
.That is a positive untruth," said Mr..
| Dewitt ST had originally intended to
1 bring the case before a higher court but
| did not do so. I never made an effort to
have the Grand Jury consider the mat
| ter. Outside influence was brought to
/ have me give Mr. Weed every chance and
! I did sS because / wished to have the case
! tried on it's merits only"
In adjourning the case until next Tues
1 day Justice Nev1n sald:-I am satlSleu
1 that Mr.. Weed had no jurisdiction in this
/ case. Only Police Justices can try such
/ cases or those Justices of the Peace who
i are appointed especially. There are but
two such especially appointed Justices.
They are Justices of the Peace McCor-
! mick and Macs. The only question to
| consider now is the intent of Mr.. Weed.
i / shall give decision on Tuesday next"
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