The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-04-21
AGAINST MR.. L|EsCH
Continued From Page One.)

wllful is shown by the articles in the
other issues of his papers. The respond
ent has endeavored to undermine the
weight that should be given to the tes-
timony of the states witness, Brooks.
This has been the character of the war
fare conducted on the refense in
Brown county, and it is no wonder that
the case had to be brought to this
county If this warfare is to be brought
elsewhere Mr.. Clark said that Mr..
Liesch had not acted thoughtlessly He
ney for the state six weeks ago. He
was informed of the alleged finding of
the portion of the hammer handle and
the buttons in the ashes by an attor-
ney for the state or a states detective,
or both. Why is he SO close to the
state? Why is this warfare being con-
Quoted? Who is back of it, and who
is meeting the expenses of it? Mr..
Clark was not prepared to say. The
transcript was held for six weeks to
use when it would do the most good,
Just before the trial During this time
it could have been easily ascertained
that the article was false. Mr.. Somsen
notified Mr.. Liesch of the falsity of the
article and that he would be held re-
sponsible if he published it. <
Mr.. Clark took up the telephone JUS
LITIGATION of Mr.. I4iesch, and said that
the circulation of extra copies were
very peculiar way to carry on tele-
phone warfare The Sanle article was
held up for six weeks, awaiting a fay
orable opportunity to publish it and
give it the widest possible circulation,
and hide under the cunning device of
another lible circulated Mr.. Liesch
did not think he was in the iurisdic-
ton of this court and could not be call
ed to account, no matter now baseless
the articles published. No punishment
or condemnation is too great for a man
who is so heartless as to seek to pre-
vent the course of justice where a man
is on trial for his life.
Mr.. Clark quoted number of au-
thorities. He did not think that a
small fine would answer the purpose. 1t
was a case where the court should make
an example. Mr.. Clark said that he
would not abridge the freedom of the
press, but it should not have unlimited
license
S. B. Wilson argued on behalf of
the respondent. The issue of April
Sth is the only one upon which Mr..
Liesch has to answer. 1t is charged
that he had jury list and mailed cop
les of the paper to the members of the
jury, to disqualify them from service
i'm the court There is not a scintilla
of evidence to sustain this. Only three
of the jurors received copies, accord
ing to the evidence. The circumstances
surrounding the Koch case ares not I'M
usual for murder case. 1t is not UNI
usual for people and newspapers to take
sides in such cases. Mr.. Liesch's ar
ticles were called out because of articles
in the New Ulm Review, the organ OF
the defense. The article published in
the Minneapolis Journal was repubhsh-
ed almost verbatim by the Mankato pa
pers, and yet no effort was made to
bring contempt proceedings. 1t is unfor-
tunate that the New Ulm paper was
circulated in this city. The extra pa
pers were bought by the Tri-State Tele-
phone company in the ordinary course
of business. Mr.. Liescn is president of
the Independent telephone company at
New Ulm and has been fighting the Bell
Telephone company. The same fight
has been fought in Mankato and else
where. The extra papers were sent to
names taken from an old directory. The
extra papers were all bought and dis
tributed by the telephone company, and
the question is only as to whether Mr..
Liesch is in contempt of court be-
cause of the circulation of the pa
per to his twenty or thirty regular sub
scribers in this county.
As to the Sanle article in question, it
has not been shown that there is any
thing untrue in the article, unless it
be the relationship of Sable and Koch,
which is trivial matter The article
was interesting, and that is what news
papers are for. There is nothing in the
article that tends in any manner to
bring disrespect upon the court. There
is nothing necessarily in the article that
any man cannot read and still be quail
fled to serve on the jury. The article
is as true to the facts as articles pub
lished in the press generally are.
Is there any testimony to show that
Mr.. Liesch had any criminal intent in
what he did? He has said that he did
not, and has. purged himself of any such
intent, and under the common law is