The sun., 1905-11-12
MEETING or POOLS VICTIMS.
LOOKS As IF TIE LATEST WOULD
HAVE TO HIRE A HALL FORT.
Letters Pour In on MIR. Sheehan's Lawyer
and His Telephone Is Busy-Lawyer's
4 story OF the Dangers OF Trying to
Collect Board Bill by Holding Trunk

Letters Four In on MIR. Sheehan'a Lawyer
and His Telephone Is Busy-Lawyer's
4 story OF the Dangers OF Trying to
Collect q Board Bill by Holding q Trunk.
Messages Of sympathy and promises Of
assistance from other victims Of Magis-
trate Pool continued to pour in yesterday
on Charles A. Sheehan and his attorney,
William j. Mccormick. Mr.. Sheehan Is
going to hold meeting soon Of all who
have grievances against Pool II the
number continues to increase "a it has
in the last two days 1t looks as though he
would have to hire hall to accommodate
them all.
Mr.. Mccormick had busy day of 1t
answering telephone calls and reading
letters that he had received in the
morning mail from people who asserted
that they had been unfairly treated by
Magistrate Pool while he was sitting in
police court. The greatest sufferers, ap-
parently, we're lawyers, some OF Wnom'
who rarely appear in 0 police court, were
greatly shocked by the manners and
methods of his Honor. The regulars who
make business Of conducting petty cases
have become accustomed to 1t.
I'VE can only pray that the like OF him
will never again be appointed to the
bench" said one Of them yesterday. L
know that there ia something Of popular
prejudice against police court lawyers,
but some one has got to do this work andl
think we ought at least to get fair show
think also that the proportion of honest
men is just IA great among the lawyers
who practice in the police courts az among
our brethren Of the bar who would scorn
any retainer less than 81 900. We have no
fault to find, speaking generally, against
any OF the Magistrates except Pool. The
way he treats ,s is simply outrageous.
1t is declared that Pool is not only harsh
and unreasonable with attorneys for com
plainants, but that his treatment Of de-
PENDANTS and their legal representatives,
is just as bad. He has a way, it is said,
of jeering and sneering at people who come
before him and getting of alleged Jokes,
which are either not understood orwhich
greatly eXasperate the persons at whom
they are aimed, A sample of this, quoted
yesterday, was his persistence in asking
Mrs Sheehan her telephone number when
1t had nothing at all to do with the case.
. 1t is alleged that early in his career az a
Magistrate when man named Battersby
pleaded guilty to stealing peck of onions
Pool illegally committed him for sixty days,
mdorsing the papers that the prisoner
waived his right of trial. On the same
day he is said to have done the same thing
with another prisoner, remarking that the
Grand Jury was an obsolete body and that
he as Magistrate had more power than
they.
II is further alleged that upon another
occasion Pool locked up the rooms Of the
Childrens society in the Fourth District
Court which he had no right to do, and that
while he was having the locks changed he
comported himself in frantic manner. in
the Essex u1arket police court charge of
burglary was made several years age against
watchman named Gilber by John Klein,
an East Broadway tailor. The charge was
not sustained to the satisfaction of the
Magistrate and he fined the complainant 81.
One of those who have been stirred up
by POOLS recent actions in court is Paul
8. Brown, a baker, of 80 Third avenue. MIR.
Brown made charge of larceny against
young man who he said had carried away
valuable white cat from the bakery and
the case came up before Magistrate Pool.
when questioned the baker could not recall
on the spur of the monenl the name of the
customer who had left the cat with him
for safe keeping. The cashier to whom
the accused was married, gave the o,ls-
TONER'S name and said that the cat had been
left with her and not the baker, In the
meantime she had left Browns employ.
"Ill admit, said Mr.. Brown yesterday,
that there was an apparent discrepancy
in the testimony, and if it had been any other
Magistrate than Pool | suppose he would
merely have dismissed the case for laL k
of evidence. But not so with Pool. Hs
turned on me and abused me terribly
If you have got any property said he
would advise this young man that he has
Q good case for false arrest.
Lawyer Theodore q. Lewis of ~ Wall
street also had something to say yester-
day about POOLS method of holding court,
Mr.. Lewis has among his clients woman
boarding house keeper who was holding
the trunks of boarder for an unpaid board
bill, as the law gives her right to do. The
boarder got a summons for her, charging
h.r plo, fiIll lnt oi fha mr. nnrfV
The case came before Pool and the owner
of the trunks produced two bills for board,
which Mr., Lewis declares were not re-
ceipted. The Magistrate, however, de.
oded that they had been paid and ordered
commitment to he made out against the
boarding house keeper for grand larceny.
In order to save herself from going to Jail,
Mr. Lewis said, his client signed an order
the Magistrate told him, the lawyer said,
that the Board of City Magistrates had
made a rule to act in the same way with
all similar cases, on the ground that New
York landladies knew how to take care
of themselves
Still another who came forward with
grievance against Pool Yesterday was
Charles Barkman, salesman in furnish
ing store at $40 Third avenue. He says
that his wife had him arrested twice for
non-support, but he was. discharged in
both instances by the Magistrates who
heard the case because his wife would not
live in the house with him. The third time
he was brought before Pool, who believed
the wife's story that Barkman had beat
her and who ordered the salesman locked
up. Barkman was transferred that after
noon from the Morrisania police court to
the prison attached to the Harlem police
court, and when his employer appeared
TO 20 on his bail bond there was no record
to show what charge Barkman had been
held on 1t might have been murder or
highway robbery and as result Barkman
haI 10 ata in ioil all NIGHT