Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-11-20
CATTLEMLN LOSE one POINT
Richards aud Oomstsok Fail to chow Dr.
1ildsh'I InounhsHoy Illegal
MUNGER HANDS DOWN HIS DECISION
Attorneys for Defense Proceed ca
Second Technical Attack, Motion
to Quash the Indictment
of Their clients.

In their fight 20 obstruct the trial Of
their clients. Bartlett Richards and w. @.
Constock, the indicted land and cattle
men, the attorneys failed in their first at
tack on technical grounds, which was the
claim that the indictment was defective
because drawn by a jury selected by DR..
Tilden, jury commissioner, whose incum-
bency in Office they pronounced Illegal
Judge Munger knocked out this plea and
the counsel for defense proceeded to their
next technical step, argument of their mo-
ton to quash the indictment.
Judge Munger handed down his decision
Monday morning, sustaining the demurrer
Of the attorneys for the government to
the plea in abatement, filed and argued by
the attorneys for Richards and Comstock
last week. The opinion Is based upon a
precedent In the case Of Agnew against the
United States, where a similar question
was involved. Judge Munger further, held
that no specific grounds were stated in the
plea and that the plea in abatement was
not filed in time.
The plea in abatement was one OF the
moves on the part of the defense to nullify
the indictment against Comstock and
Richards and was based on the ground
that DR.. George .Tilden was not eligible
to participate in drawing the grand jury
|
stock and Richards in the land fencing
or any other cases, because of the fact
that he had never been regularly reap
pointed as jury commissioner by Judge
! Munger: also for the further reason that
| since the first appointment of DR.. Tilden,
who was originally appointed as a demo-
| crat the clerk of the federal district court
was at present a democrat, while the law
provided that the jury commissioner and
| the district clerk should be of opposite
political faiths The attorneys for the gov
eminent, on the other hand, claimed that
the date Of DR.. Tilden's appointment as
jury commissioner was made permanent by
Judge Dundy in April, 1880 and since
that time ne has lawfully continued as such
officer, from the fact that he has not re-
signed or been removed for cause
Motion to Quash Indictment.
The argument on the motion to quash the
indictments against Richards and ComstJcl
was resumed Monday morning by Mr.
Woodrough of counsel for the defense. Mr.
Woodroughs argument is based on tn,
contention that preliminary filing OF
lands for use AID possession during tn,
pending maturity for final proof and actua
title does not constitute a fraud, and tina
until such final proof is made and paten
issued by the government there has beel
no alienation Of the title from the govern
ment and hence no fraud is committed
} nor is there any grounds for alleging tn
completion of the alleged conspiracy (
defraud the government out of title. X
further alleged that several of the count
have been garbled from the indictments 4
the Dele case and are not germane to tn
case at bar Other features of the argu
ment were that the charge of a crime i
the several counts Of the Indictment Shout
be more specific. Mr.. woodrough occupie
! the entire forenoon in his argument. Nj
Rush viii follow for the government an
the az guments for the defense in supper
, Of the motion to quash will follow b
Afessrs. r S, Hall and Harry Bronze.
Interested listeners to the argument
were NIessrs. Bartlett Richards, VIII {
: Comstock and Aqulla Triplett each
, whom are included in the indictment undo
9 argument