The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-08-14
MANY MAY
Be FREED
Lawyer HankeySprings
Sensation.
INTERESTING LEGAL POINT
Liquor Seller Gilman Released by
Judge Humphreys--Pfetty
Mess May Follow.

w. G. J. Ottman, the Waikiki resort
keeper who was fined $500 and sen
fenced to three months Imprisonment
by Police Judge Wilcox recently for
selling liquor without license, walked
out OF the Circuit Court yesterday af-
ternoon a free man. He owes his free
dom to a ruling on the part of Judge
Humphreys on a motion by Frederick
W. Hankey, Ottman's attorney, for his
clients discharge on account of error
in the manner of his indictment, The
ruling may result in the striking from
the court docket of large number of
cases. hence the ruling is somewhat far
reaching in its effects.
Mr.. Hankey stated to the court that
he had ascertained that in the lower
court no complaint had been filed
against his client, that the charge
against him and his name We're simply
read from a book, and that a document
was read wherein it was stated that
the Deputy Sheriff had reason to be-
lieve" that Gilman had been guilty of
selling liquor without a license.
This, Mr.. Hankey commended, did not
amount to a complaint, as according
to the statutes each man who is charg-
ed with an offense must be so charged
i'm a written complaint wherein the Of
Tense is clearly and Enthusiastically set
forth. In the present case the prosecu-
ton wished to file a new complaint
against the defendant, but Mr.. Hankey
claimed that the Circuit Court had no
jurisdiction Of the case whatever, for
the lower court had had no jurisdiction,
no formal complaint having been filed
in II.
Judge Humphreys consulted the stat
ute for a moment and then ruled that
the defendant was entitled to a dis
charge on the grounds mentioned by
his counsel. and Mr.. Ottman went out
/ Of the court room feeling better than
he has for some days; than he has since
he received that heavy fine With the
prospect OF going to the> penitentiary
added to il.
/ There Is TO be further pilikia before
| the Ottman case is finished, so Mr..
Hankey asserts. He has another card
up his sleeve which he proposes to use
If his client is rearrested, as will un-
doubtedly be the case. He states that
the police judge has no authority to
send any prisoner to the peniCentiary
for any offense whatever.
The constitution expressly states,
said Mr.. Hankey yesterday afternoon
that no man shall be found guilty OF
scented or indicted by a grand jury. Now
there are two kinds of infamous crimes
one of which Is In its nature Infamous
and one which lays the accused liable
to punishment that Will carry imam.
with il, such as confinement in a pen
itentiary. being compelled to wear con
vict garb and being subject to suci
rules as exist at the Oahu penitentiary
My client is certainly not guilty of al
Infamous crime, as defined by the stat
utes, and yet he was sentenced to serv
three months in the Oahu penitentiary
where he would have been compelled t
wear the convict garb and would hav
been subject to the rules of the prison
which provide even that a man may b
logged for certain violations of priso
rules.
Il contend that the police magistrat
has no jurisdiction to inflict any sue
punishment. If we had a Jail or othe
place OF temporary confinement
: would be different. But we have no
and every man who is sentenced by tn
police judge is sent to the penitentiar!
This is contrary to the constitution {
the United States, and l contend tina
he has no authority to do So"
Many of the leading members of III
local bar have looked up the matte
since Ii was sprung by Mr.. Hanke.
and the consensus of opinion seemed I
be yesterday that he was right in h
contention, so there will in all likel
hood be a host of habeas corpus cas-.
soon presented to the Circuit Courts.