The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-24
POLICE GRAFT ON LAWYERS.
AND LAWYERS ON PRISONERS
WHILE JUSTICE WINKS.
IT'S the Usual Thing IN Police Courts Now
adsXs TO Divide Fees With Cops Who
De the TOuting Some Magistrates
Help Out This Fraud on UnrOrtunates.

do the TOutlng Some Maglsirates
Help Out This Frand on UnrOrtunates.
When Police COMMISSIONS Bingham
cleaned out The. entire police squad in the
West Sid court last week it became known
that it vas because the police there had
formed an alliance with a political faction
and were in the habit of steering certain
lawyers upon prisoners with the supposed
idea OF dividing the fees. A few days later
il came out in a case before Magistrate
Cornell that a policeman in a station house
had slipped the cards Of two lawyers to
a prisoner and had assured him that either
one had sufficient influence to secure a dis
charge for $50.
The police court lawyers have thrived in
the last three or four years as they never
have before. The increase In the number of
police cases does not tally proportionately
with the. prosperity Of these alto rneys.
Five or six years ago there were half a
dozen lawyers in and around each police
court Of importance, all making only a fair
living. Now there are ten or twelve, and
some of them make as much as $40 900 Q
year. A system has been NJ vogue in recent
years whereby these lawyers nave increased
in number and in profits, and the key to
tUt byblrHt q rVu cooperation WIN ~
police.
The ordinary lawyer waits for clients to
come 70 him. The police court lawyers
used TO do that very thing, but such an
tiauated methods nowadays would result
in starvation. The day Of the deal has
arrived. The systatp requires new methods.
and the police court lawyers almost to a
man how 70 the rules. These rules require
that the fee for defending a prisoner must
be divided with the policeman who sees
that the proper lawyer gets a case. Fishing
for clients in police courts Is now reduced
almost to an exact science. The basic
principle is that every person who is TN
fortunate enough TO have money and get
in trouble in the police court must be made
TO disgorge. The lawyers throw out their
lines. The police watch the lines, and when
thew get a bite and hook a fish the lawyer
is sent for 10 pull up the hook and set the
fish free.
The system rose through the industry of
a certain lawyer. He always appeared in
certain cases, especially when prisoners
with money were ia the tolls. At first it
was thought that ~he.fnust have telephone
connections with the station house, because
he was so quick on the job. While the old
school lawyers were waiting for court to
open in the morning and were busting
about in the hope that they might be. en-
gagged it was seen that practically every
case with a good fee in it had been secured
by this lawyer.
The oldtimers tried TO puzzle it out. The
successful lawyer was n hustler, but he had
no greater legal ability and was no better
scnooled in the tricks of the trade in police
courts than they. How his reputation had
spread so that all the prisoners worth pluck
ing had heard of him and had FASTENED to
hire him was a mystery.
The system was in operation for nearly
a week before the secret was found out
Then a policeman said to an oldtime la wyer
who had secured a case:
Am | in on this?"
What do you mean"
do 1 get part of the fee? You are get
ting ten plunks out of this"
studied law when il cost money, as
il does now, 10 fit myself for the bar. and
why should ! pay you a part of the fee?
You are getting a salary from the city for
doing your work.
"Oh, shucksl" OF words TO that effect,
was the reply of the policeman. IL took
the Old timers some time to become wise
20 the operations of the system. but when
they did become wise ai h ands Joined in
and then the police began 10 reap a greater
harvest. At first the divvy was on a 20
per cent. basis. Then il was raised to IS,
then to 10 and then to 80, which ~ now the
prevailing rate.
There was an attempt to raise the divvy
TO rs per cent, but the lawyers bake AZ
that, although il is known that rather than
lose a case the lawyers several times gave
up rs per cent TO the policeman.
What are the quotations tO-dayY said
the policeman who first asked Is per cent,
Half the feeg'
Not enough; have to split it up with the
others"
"Ill be hanged if I'm going to give you
SIS out Of a SD fee, said the lawyer. 1t
cost me money to study law and II costs
me money TO live and run an Office. I'm
not going 10 give you three-qlarters OF
a fee for steering a client to me.
That lawyer lost the case and the police
man found the proper lawyer. but there
we're limits to the eXtortion game and the
quotation dropped to 80 per cent.
The result is that in nearly every police
station certain lawyers have policemen on
their stats. They give these policemen
their cards and the policemen arrange to
have those arrested communicate ny tele-
phone with the lawyer selected at once.
II the case reaches comrt before a lawyer
il engaged the policemen, al the West
Side court squad did, do the talking and
frightening and long before court opens
lHtN udNC DhINClHu VuI ~ O'EOo w
~favorite lawyers.
These lawyers are sent for and are adj
mitted to the court prison, where the bar
gain is sealed. When the Magistrate ar
rives it il rare to find a prisoner who has
4 IS to spare who has not an torney Time
and again a lawyer who has been engaged
ny relatives has arrived in court to find
that he cannot see the prisoner until court
opens. When the prisoners are brought
out he finds that his supposed client has
alre lady engaged an attorney and invari-
ably has given up his money in advance.
Ayoung man was arraigned III the Tombs
court recently. The police had found that
he had IS in his clothes. They tried to scare
the man and told him that only one attor-
ney had enough pull with the Magistrate
to get him of. He chung to his SIS and finally
he made a bargain with the lawyer in ques-
ton. 1t was that II he got OF the lawyer
was TO, get the IS; II he was fined IS the
lawyer was to get nothing. The lawyer
took the case. The man would have been
discharged anyway. for il was simply an
in~toxication case with no serious features.
The lawyer got the S. and the prisoner said
he was satisfied.
When asked why he did not expose to the
police the attempt at grating that the police
had begun, the prisoner smiled and said:
~ a.