Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1905-12-29
FIRST HATING CASE ENDS.
TESTIMONY OF MIDSHIPMAN
IN HANDS OF JUDGES.
Midshipman pecatur's Case Next
To Be Considered -Yester-
day Afternoons
Session.

COffiu, .Ir charged with haZing Mid
shipman Jerdone p. Kimbrough. the
first Of series OF like cases marking
the result OF the activity of Admiral
James H. Sands, the superintendent
of the Naval Academy. against the
practice. is NOW in the hands of those
who will pass final Judgment upon il.
The presentation of the case and the
argument Of counsel and judge adyo-
cate concluded ar II 10 this morning.
A very general feeling prevails that
q verdict of guilty will be reached by
the court. The record will then go TO
Admiral Sands for his action. The
only penalty provided by law is dis.
missal After the disposal of the
Coffin case the court will take up that
OF Midshipnan Stephen Decatur. Jr.,
q member OF the first class, the charge
of hazing against whom rests on
four specifications.
Three of these refer to the hazing
OF Isaac n. McCrary, of Calvert,
Texas, and the other TO the haZi ng of
Gaylard Church. Of Meadville. Pa.
Both of these are members Of the
fourth class II is alleSei that De-
catnr hazed the former by compelling
him TO stand on his head and also by
compelling him TO continue two differ.
ent physical exercises until he reached
the point of exhaustion. In connec-
tion with Church. "a similar spacifica-
tion is made out Decatur stands
number six in the class of li9 mem
bers, which will graduate early next
year He will make q bitter fight
against conviction. and il is under
stood that he denies the Charges abso-
lutely. 1t is likely that he will only
be arraigned this afternoon and that
the trial will proceed tomorrow morn
ing.
Midshipman Warran A. Vandereer,
of Mt. Holly, N. J., who is under
charge of neglect of duty in falling
to report Kimbrough's condition
though it had been made known to him
by an inspection will have to be tried
by court assembled in a different
manner than the others, as the law
under which the present court was
constituted applies only to cases Of
hazing.
At the opening of the session of the
court this morning the counsel for the
defense announced that he had no
more witnesses to offer and the judge
advocate introduced two witnesses to
rebdt the testimony offered to impeach
Midshipamn Kimbrough's character
for veracity. The first was Midship-
man Overdown Whitmeyer, the room
mate of Kimbrough. He said that he
had always found the latter perfectly
truthful in all his dealings with him
and believed that he enjoyed that rep
utation generally. This view of the
case was oorroborated in the main by
Midshipman Franz A. Braisted, a
classmate of Kimbrough and Whit
meyer.
In the argument which followed the
closing of the case, Mr.. Theall, coun-
sci for the accused, made a clever
presentation of his side, relying alto
gether on the claims of absence Of
sufficient proof on certain points and
alleged failures to properly introduce
certain evidence. He urged particu-
larly that the evidence did not show
that Ooffin had anything more to do
with the hazing than did Hewlett and
that the court was committed to the
contention that Hewlett had not been
guilty of hazing by ruling that his
testimony did not incriminate him
self. He also urged strongly that the
confession to Lieutenant Commander
McVey was not voluntary and should
not be considered. Finally, he claim
been successfully impeached.
Judge Advocate Harrison in raply
only quoted from Winthrop on military
law TO show that under the circum-
stances the confession was on entirely
voluntary one. The case was given
to the court at IL. 10 aud when it has
reached finding the record will go to
Admiral Sands, superintendent of the
Naval Academy, for his action. 1t
will not be announced until Admiral
Sands has acted upon it.
Yesterday afternoon the prosecution
closed its case after having introduced
Lieutenant-C Commander McVey and
Surgeon T. @. Byrnes There was
controversy over the admission of the
testimony of Lieutenant. Commander
McVey as to Coffin's confession. OBJ
lection was made by E. S. Theall,
Coffin's counsel, that the confession
had not been voluntary. The court,
however, ruled otherwise The wit
ness said that Coffin admitted the haz.
ing and asked to be allowed to resign.
Surgeon Byrnes, called to see Kim
brough after the hazing, testified that
he was not shamming, and further,
that he was in such a condition as TO
cause the witness great anxiety as to
whether he would live.
Several m1dshipmen were introduced
by the defence for the purpose of
showing that the reputation of Mid
shipman Kimbrough for veracity was
not good. The most important of
these were Midshipmen Raleigh E.
Hughes, who is captain of the COM
pany to which Kimbrough belongs,
and Roy Lee. Stoyer, petty officer
in the same company. They both tes-
tilted, as did Others, that the reputa-
ton of Kimbrough for veracity was
not the best, but all admitted on cross
examination that the reputation was
entirely based on matters coming TO
their attention since the hazing of
Kimbrough They also admitted that
there was much feeling against Kim
brough because it was believed that
he had contributed to the downfall Of
the hazing customs, which Midship-
man Hughes characterized as "time
honored. This was the only testi-
mony introduced by the defence.
The charges and specifications have
been fled against Midshipman Stephen
Decatur. Jr., of Portsmouth, n. H.,
a member of the first class and de-
scendant Of Commodore Decatur He
is charged with hazing two midship-
men of the fourth class, Isaac N Nc
Crary, of Calvert, Tex, and Gaylord
t. Church, of Meadyille, Pa. The