The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1901-08-28
BARKER'S FRIENDS HOT
They Say They Will Force
Keller to Act Willy
Nilly.

New interest has been aroused in the
case of Thomas G. Barker, sentenced to
five years imprisonment for murderous
assault on the Rev. John Keller, rector OF
Trinity Mission, Arlington, by state
ment attributed to the wife of the con-
victed man, in which the clergyman is
challenged to bring suit for slander.
Time, instead of softening the feeling of
the factions that have been formed in the
quiet New Jersey village, has added to
the bitterness, and the demand has been
made on Mr. Keller's friends that he de-
lay no further, but take such legal steps
as may be necessary to prove himself in
nocent of the charge made against him by
Barker as justification for the shooting
or by his silence admit that the husband
had taken the law into his own hands to
avenge an actual wrong.
Final disposition of Barker's case, by
the first court of appellate jurisdiction
will not be made until November That
tribunal, in the State of New Jersey, is
the Supreme Court. Should the Judgment
of the trial court be sustained, Barker's
attorneys will go to the Court of Errors
and Appeals, and If the case goes that
far, no decision will be reached until the
summer of 1902 at the earliest.
Meantime the Thomas G. Barker De-
tense Association, formed to defend the
interests of Barker, is seeking through
its president, John Sumner, to have a
civil suit instituted to bring out the truth
or falsity of the charges made by Mrs.
Barker in the public prints while her hus-
band was ON trial, and which provoked a
rebuke by the court and threat that
the attorneys for the defense would be
disciplined for permitting such a state
ment to be made public while the trial
was going on. Up to this time no action
looking to their punishment has been
taken.
Efforts have been made to deliver to the
Rev John Keller, under the cover of a
registered envelope, request or demand
that he begin action for slander or libel
against Mrs. Barker. but these letters
were not delivered, because the persons
to whom they were proffered and acting
on behalf of Mr.. Keller, refused to receive
them.
Now comes the statement. said to have
been made by close friend of Mr.. Keller,
that the reason for not bringing civil suit
is that Mr. Keller has not been slandered
by Mrs. Barker; that she has not said
or has not assumed the responsibility for
any utterance which would form the basis
for a legal action, and that until she did
so the clergyman's friends would no. die
tate the step which they deemed proper
for him to take.
1t is in answer to this statement thai
the reply which is accredited to Mrs. Bar
ker is made, and a quotation from her tes-
timony in the trial of her husband is Of
fered as actionable ground for suit for
SANDER
'sWhy did you leave Trinity Mission"
she was asked.
Because of an outrage on me by Mr..
Keller, was the reply.
The answer was stricken out, and does
not form part of the court record, but it
was published in the newspapers never
theless. On that publication alone Bar
ker's friends. declare, there is ground
sufficient to bring the case to an issue,
and on that the challenge is issued. It is
held by, lawyers, however, that any de-
claration made under oath in a criminal
trial is not actionable in civil court,
no matter whether the question and an
swer had been admitted or stricken from
the court records!