Arizona republican., 1907-05-19
1t was the Result of the Exercise of Natural
Newspaper Enterprise
The District Attorney Finds that Authority
was Actuated by Improper Motive and 30 Re
ports to the Court

Boise. May 1s.-Prosecuting Attor-
ney Koelsch has completed an inves-
tigation OF the circumstances under
which Orchard was interviewed and
today he presented the district court
with a report exonerating from charge
Of improper motives all persons con-
nected with the incident He found
the only motive the newspaper men
had in interviewing Orchard was to
obtain news of him. In announcing
the report Judge Wood said it called
for no action and directed IL to be
filed.
The report in part is as follows: Il
of course investigated the matter with
the view solely of determining wheth-
er there had been any infractions of
penal laws against contempt of court. l
take it for granted that with the ques-
tion of the propriety of the publica-
tions under consideration | have moth
ing to do. at least, not in an official
way. In order to come within the pur-
view Of our statute defining punish
ing of improper attempts to influence
a juror or person summoned as juror
such attempt must have been made in
done it is a felony. A publication
during the course of trial which re-
fleets upon the court or assails the liti-
gants or seeks to intirIidate witnesses
or which spreads before the jury an
opinion upon the merits of the contro-
versy or threatens them with public
odium, attempts to dictate a decision
or in any improper way endeavors to
influence a determination of the case
is contempt of court.
/ am able to report that my investi-
cation of the matter entirely disproves
that any improper motive actuated any
one connected with the publication un-
der consideration. The interview was
published purely as a matter OF news
which correspondents have been eager
to get for long time but had been de-
MED the opportunity OF getting. When
the opportunity finally was given they
seized it with avidity. with no other
idea than that it would be front page,
scare head matter.
This was natural. Orchard. the chief
actor in the tragedy had been denied
to newspapermen for months. No one
had heard any authoritative statement
about him. He became mysterious
Stories of his physical and mental
breakdown were circulated and found
their way into the press. 1t was no
wonder that. the newspapeTmen should
want to see and interview him. 1t was
no wonder that the newspapers should
overlook the improperly of publishing
such interviews at this time. The As
sociated Press men and others became
so insistent to see him that the re-
quest was finally granted.
l am able to state and do state that
this privilege was granted them solely
because of their repeated requests and
il was a slow yielding to their per-
sistency. 1t never even entered the
minds of those who granted the pri-
vilege that there could be anything
improper in the action, and no improp-
er motive actuated them. / want to
emphasize that my Investigations alb
solutely disprove any improper mo-
tives on the part of any one who per-
mitted the interviews. That other
statements contained in the publica-
tions under consideration were not
made at this particular time with any
| improper intent is further evidenced by
| the fact that various statements re-
peatedly for a long time prior thereto
had appeared in the press.
During the investigation my atten-
ton was directed to the fact that for
| a long time a certain paper had devot-
ed itself almost exclusively 10 pub
fishing matter tending to discredit per-
sons likely to be called as witnesses in
the pending case. When I answered
that two wrongs never could make a
| right. that because others had not been
punished for contempt. was not de-
| fense I was assured by both the
| Statesman and the Capital News and
by each correspondent of outside pa-