Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-07-28
TWO LIQUOR CASES HEARD.
An Acquittal in Sullivan Case-Fines on Two Counts in the Other.

on Two Counts in the Other.
 The open door in the saloon business was the topic before Judge Burpee in the city court to-day. This. matter came up in complaint against Daniel Sullivan for keeping open and access between his saloon at 60 Bridge street and the living apartments in the same building. Sullivan said he was not guilty He was defended by Attorney Russell. This place has been used as saloon for long time and it seems that there had been wooden bar on the door in question. This bar has been removed, the door handle taken out of the door so that in the opinion of MT Pierce, the prosecuting agent, it was possible" to maintain access between the saloon and the rest of the building and in the complaint he charged Sullivan with keeping open this door. A few weeks ago, Officer Mccarthy and Sergeant Blakely tried to get into the saloon and in doing 80 almost tore down the lower part of the building. The door in question was then found closed, locked in fact. It seems that they had search warrant for SulIVan's place, but they had no right to break down any part of the building that did not form part of the saloon. ..... -. Sullivan testified that he never had key to the door, never opened it, never saw 1t opened, never, in fact, had had anything to do with it. Every body knew that it led to hallway which was a common way for the rest of the tenants from the street. MT Pierce and MT Sullivan had verbal tilt as to an affidavit the latter took when applying for his license and Sul- livan admitted that he did not remem- Der what he 'took" when he swore to the document. Patrick Thompson owner of the building, said the door, so far as he knew had nothing to do with the saloon and that the officers broke in two of his doors on their visit one Sunday some weeks ago. This closed the case and MT Russell said the state should have fairly substan- tial case in a matter of this kind, be- cause man has good deal of money invested, $45O for his license and prob couple of thousand in the other part of the business, and 1t was only fair that the state should have good case. He thought that the state was pretty far off when it undertook to say that this door was open, when in the face of the evidence it was actually closed.
 MT Pierce said that it was not ne- cessary to show that the door was open. Provided that it could be opened by ordinary means, was sufficient to prove breach of the law. @t..
 MT Russell reminded the court that nowadays the law lays down the ways and means by which doors in saloons may be sealed and the court seemed to agree with him in that. The court room door was closed and Judge Bur pee asked MT Pierce if he could say that 1t was open. MT Pierce replied that physically the door was not open, but if there was a saloon on the other side of the door, then it would be con- sidered open.
 The court said that there was no doubt that the door was not effectively sealed, but the question was was it open as charged. Was it way of ac- cess It was distortion of the language to say it was open when in fact the officers admitted 1t was closed and in the face of this statement he would have to find the accused not guilty. sJO 1S8 Baldwin street was charged with keeping open the same last Sunday afternoon, dispensing liquor, and with selling to a minor. He pleaded not guilty.
 Officer Hickey testified that. he was passing along River street Sunday af- ternoon about 6:15 o'clock with Officer Mccarthy when they saw a woman sitting at the rear door of the saloon. The door opened about six inches and they saw hand pass out d pail to the woman, the latter handing the pail to boy named Connor living at S3 River street They had clear view of the saloon door from where they were. They went to the house entered by the boy and saw a man place the pail on Ia table. They then entered the house and the moment the man saw them he threw the contents of the pail in the I sink and turned on the water Never theless Officer Hickey stated he tasted of the stuff and found 1t was beer. He was sure of this. There was no defense and a fine of $25 and costs was imposed on each charge. An appeal was taken to the district court.
 Lester Scovill was found guilty of non-support of his wife and was or dered to furnish bond to pay his wife | S6 a week for six months or go to Jail for sixty days.
 Thomas Petowski was fined $7 for keeping an unlicensed dog.
 RECORD RUN TO CATCH FLYER.