Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-12-18
Charles Pasnau Gets a
New Trial.
BRADY CASE AFFIRMED
ottumWa Man Convicted OF Assault
With Intent to Do Great Bodily In
jury Gets a Favorable Judgment in
the Supreme Court.

Two important decisions were rem
dered in the supreme court of Iowa
yesterday, one in the case of the state
against Charles Pasnau and the other
in the case of Wapello county against
Patrick and Kate Brady, in each of
which the Wapello county district
court, Judge Robert Sloan presiding,
found for the plaintiff. The Pasnau
case was reversed by Judge Deemer
of the supreme bench and Judge Ladd
case. Pasnau will get new trial,
which lawyers say is equivalent al
most to acquittal.
The Pasnau Case
Every one in Ottumwa knows of the
trouble brought en- by the fight at the
livery barn of Grips & Bro. on April
IL, 1901, when Charles Pasnau, Lewis
Jones, Henry Mungoven and several
others are alleged to have attacked S.
P. Grips and George w. Houston, one
of the proprietors and an employe re-
spectively. The trouble occurred ov-
er team which the "Pasnau gang"
as 1T was called, had taken out of the
barn for ride and had, it is claimed,
misused. When ordered to return the
horses to the barn by one of the own
ers, the men became angry and it was
charged that they began trouble by
refusing to pay the bill.
1t appeared from the evidence pro-
duced by the state at the trial of
Jones and Mongoven that these two
did most of the actual fighting, al
though it was charged that Charles
PaSnon
cited the others to their deeds Of reck-
lessness, which were made more reck-
less by the intoxicated condition in
which the men were at that time. A
bloody fight occurred in the barn and
as result Mr.. Grips arm was broken.
He sustained several other injuries,
while Houston was stabbed in the alb.
domen and fingered between life and
death for several days.
Jones and Mongoven are serving
terms in the penitentiary, having been
convicted. Mongoven's case was ap.
pealed to the supreme court and af-
firmed and he began the service of
three and one-half years only a short
time ago. Jones has served about
eighteen months of his five years
sentence.
Charles Pasnau was convicted of
the crime of assault with intent to do
great bodily injury and was sentenced
to imprisonment in the county Jail for
ten months, but appealed his case to
the supreme court. Yesterday Judge
Deemer filed a decision reversing the
finding of the jury, on the ground that
Judge Sloan did not lay enough stress
upon the fact that PaSnau was intoyj-
Gated. The defendant himself claimed
that he was so much under the intlu.
ence of liquor that he did not know
what he or the other members of the
gang We're doing.
Judgment in Brady Case.
In the famous case of Wapello
county against Patrick and Kate
Brady, Judge Sloan's decision that
the property of the defendants on
North Court street is subject to a
judgment of S2,250 in favor of the
county was affirmed by Judge Ladd
The judgment grew out Of Mr.. Brady's
trouble with the county when he was
overseer of the poor His property
on North Court street MI. Brady
claimed was exempt as homestead
| The Wapello county district court de
cided otherwise Mr.. Brady appealed
| to the supreme court but that tribun
al takes the same view of the lower
| court. The Judgment now amounts tc
between $2,500 and $4,000.