Los Angeles herald., 1906-11-24

Although a self-confessed accessory
relia Scheck, who for the past six
months has been an inmate of the city
and county jails on charges of murder
and perjury, yesterday left the latter
institution, a free woman.
Yesterday morning, as soon as court
was called in department four of the
superior court, Judge Trask handed
down his decision in the petition of Mrs
Scheck's attorney for dismissal of thu
grand jury's indictment, and that peti.
tion was granted.
There were hardly a dozen people ir
the court room when Mrs. Scheck, wear
ing a heavy mourning veil, appeared
accompanied by an officer. She walked
forward and seated herself beside At,
torney Appel and listened quietly as
Judge Trask read his decision. Thai
document sustained the petition &c
quash the grand jury indictment on the
ground that the evidence offered in the
perjury charge before that body was i'll
sufficient.
Says Evidence Is insufficient
This woman has undoubtedly COM
mitted perjury and is by her own con-
fession an accomplice in one of the most
perpetrated in this state" said Judge
Trask.
1.-THE evidence offered before the
grand jury, however, was insufficient
and we can only look at this case from
a legal standpaoint. This woman, no
matter to what she has confessed, has
every right to justice, and therefore it
is the order of this court that the grand
jury indictment against her charging
her with perjury be dismissed, and the
prisoner freed
Mrs. Scheck did not so much as raise
her eyes during the statement. She
showed no emotion, but left the court
room and returned to the county Jail to
await the arrival of her sister, who was
to take her away.
The district attorney said after the
decision had been handed down that
every legal step possible had been taken
in order that Mrs. Scheck might be pun
ished for her crimes, but that the last
step had failed and the woman was
free to go where she pleased.
Told Story of Burglars
The crimes with which Mrs. Scheck
was charged are alleged to have been
committed on June A. At that time
Joel Scheck, the woman's husband, was
murdered in his bed in the early hours
of the morning by a masked man who
fired one shot into his victims right eye
and another into his heart.
A story of burglars was first told, but
Mrs. Scheck later testified that heI
lover, Ernest G. Stackpole, with whom
she had been in love for some months,
had done the killing. according to a
plan of long standing between the GRIM
inally intimate lovers
Stackpole was convicted and SEN
fenced to life imprisonment in states
penltentiary upon evidence furnished
by Mrs. Scheck, and the man is now
awaiting his appeal to the supreme
court, which is regarded as fruitless.
With the Woman's husband dead as
result of her plotting, and her lover
under life imprisonment as a result of
her evidence, popular opinion demanded
that some action be taken to punish the
woman.
Promised Immunity
Mrs. Scheck had been promised Inn
munity from punishment on the murder
charge when she turned states evil
dence, and she was about to be freed
when information alleging perjury was
filed with the grand jury. 1t was said
that Mrs. Scheck had perjured herself
at the coroner's inquest when she re-
peated, under oath, the story told her by
Stackpole regarding the burglary the
ory.
Her attorneys, however, fought the
grand jury on the indictment on the
ground of incompetent and insufficient
evidence, and yesterday succeeded In
freeing the woman.
While waiting for her sister to arrive
for her yesterday Mrs Scheck gave the
following statement to The Herald:
II do not know what 1 will do" she
said. II don't know just what l can do
When first started to work l slaved al
making berry boxes, and since that time
l have worked IN a laundry l have
often thought that l might become a