The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-22
GENERAL SESSIONS is BLAMED
FOR BLOCKING the FIGHT
AGAINST STREET. UOMEN.
Magistrates Complain Especially Against
Judge O'sullIyan. Who Is Releasing
women on Nominal BaIi Pending
AppeaI-AmOunts TO n $40 Fine.

Some OF the Police Magistrates are COM
plaininG that their efforts 10 deal with the
women Of the street in what they believe
IL the only rational way under the law of
lessening tho evil are being nullihed by the
Judges Of General Sessions in releasing
women who have been sent to the work.
house under what Is practically nominal
bail pending an appeal.
Within two months Judge O'Sullivan,
they assert, has released more than a dozen
OF these women under bail of 500. A pro-
fessional bondsman usually charges 10
per cent. Of the face of the bond and these
Magistrates contend that releasing the
women under 500 ball really means a fine
OF SO, which the city does not receive and
which the professional bondsman gets
In case the appeal ia sustained.
Appeals from Magistrates courts are
reversed oftener than affirmed. In the last
two wears there have been seventy re-
versals. about one-half of which were due
to the fact that no stenographers' minutes
we're taken and there was no record to lay
before the Court Of General Sessions. In
that time seventeen cases have been affirmed,
most OF them in the last eight months,
which, according to the officials in the
District Attorneys Office, shows that the
Magistrates are exercising more care in the
disposition Of their cases. Four appeals
have been withdrawn, one has been dis
missed and about thirty-ive have not been
prosecuted.
An examination of the records in the
appeal bureau OF the District Attorneys
Office in the cases of women sent to the
workhouse by Magistrates for disorderly
conduct or vagrancy shows that Judge
O'Sullivan is the only one of that court who
allows nominal bail in these appeals. In
two years Judge Newburger has released
two women under $500 bail. The late Judge
Mcmahon released women on appeal as
follows: Three at 5000; four. $500; five, $500.
He granted four appeals without admission
to bail. Recorder Goff has admitted two
women TO bail at $500. Judge Cowing adj
mitted one at $500 and allowed appeals in
two cases without bail. Judge Foster has
admitted one to bail at 500, four at $500
and has granted four appeals without bail.
Judge Rosalsky has admitted five to bail
at $500.
Judge O'Sullivan, practically within the
last two months, has admitted six Of these
women to bail at 500, pending appeal, and
seven to $3.50 bail. He has allowed appeals
in eight cases without bail.
A nice legal point has arisen as to whether
the Judges of General Sessions have the
IlRnI 10 ulI0lI ANY IL ltlGSt WOIIlOIl W tdll
pending appeals. The Magistrates hold
that there is doubt. Section 1853 Of the
Criminal Code, which deals with release on
bail on appeals from Special Sessions, says
that upon appeal, IL the Justice il satisfied
that there Is reasonable doubt, -but not
otherwise" he may admit the defendants
to bail pending a final decision.
The Magistrates contend that II any Judge
OF General Sessions has reasonable doubt"
in these cases the only way that such doubt
can enter into his mind is after he has read
the testimony in the case. The application
for bail is made on the affidavit OF a lawyer
who charges that there was in -ufficient
evidence or other good reason for reversing
the Magistrates decision. How an affi-
davit of the counsel in the case, without
the testimony to back it up, could convince
a higher court of reasonable doubt the
Magistrates say they cannot understand,
Judge O'Sullivan has released women
under nominal bail without consulting the
District Attorneys Office. Several OF the
Judges of General Sessions, when apphca-
ton for bail pending appeal has been MADE,
have always referred the cases to the appeal
bureau of the District Attorneys office.
The records of the appeal bureau show
also twenty-four appeal cases from Mays
trates in which the Judges who granted the
appeals are not named. The original papers
have the Judges name on them, OF course
hut in some way the full record was not
sent to the District Attorneys office. One
case which aroused some comment among
the Magistrates is not on the District
Attorneys books at all. 1t is the case oil
Jennie lie BrIn. whom Magistrate Whitman
on November 7 last committed to the work
house for six months under the indeterml-
nate sentence law. The appeal in that case
wa. allowed by Judge O'Sullivan on Novem-
her q. two days after she was sent to prison.
Policeman Thomas Conlin of the Nine
teenth precinct swore that she solicited MN
on the street and took him to a room IN
West Thirty-sixth street. The woman adj
mitted that she had been arrested twice
and that she had been fined s. two months
before. Magistrate Whitman thereupon de-
Cided hat sne was a known prostitute
a. the code provides, and cent her to jail.
Her counsel made affidavit that the evidence
was insufficient for a conviction and that
the Magistrate also was without jurisdiction
On the attorneys affidavit and, IL II asserted,
without other evidence, Judge O'Sulhvan
admitted the woman to bail. The case came
w N November % and Magistrate Whitman
was reversed by Judge O'Sullivan.
Another case that has attracted the at
tention of the Magistrates is that of May
Hurley, who was committed To the work
hoase as a vagrant in February last by
Magistrate Cornell. The evidence showed
that she was a woman Of the street, a known
prostitute. and two policemen, {. a. Wlxon
and Roundsman Tunney, swore that they
had Known her as such for three years;
that moreover she had been arrested ana
convicted as such several times. In re-
versing the Magistrates decision Judge
O'Sullivan said:
There was no legal evidence Of vagrancy
before the Magistrate in this case. IL was
entirely possible TO secure evidence, II lt
existed. and the Magistrates courts should
be held to the same degree of care in matters
involving the liberty of an individual ss
Is required in courts of record"
Judge O'Sullivan was asked yesterday
by a Sun reporter why he had apparently
departed from the usual rule OF admitting
these women TO bail in sums OF from $500
90 $500 and had fixed the sums at 800 and
$3.50. He said:
Il am obliged for the courtesy in coming
70 me about this matter, but l cannot discuss
In any newspaper the reasons for any
judicial act of mine"
The Magistrates have contended that
once the appeal is taken in these cases
she matter is allowed To lie Enacted upon
by the District Attorneys office, because
that office is occupied with matters OF
much greater Importance. The records
do not bear out this assertion. There
are thirty or forty of the cases now awaiting
final disposition, but the appeal bureau
of the District Attorneys office is preparing