The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-06-11
County Attorney Scores Failure
in Every Important Case
He Undertakes.
WORRIED BADLY OVER
HIS POLITICAL FUTURE
Fears That His BIundering VIII
Cost Him Confidence of
Church Bosses.

of the failures when county Attorney
Willard Hanson has scored during the
first few months of his term and dur
ing the last few months Of his ser
vice as Assistant County Attorney. To
write of Hanson at all one must write
of his failures for ne has had no sue
cesses, and, aside from binding over
n few petit lareenists caught with the
goods on or other minor maletaetoTs
without money 10 hire lawyer, nan
son s record as prosecutor rs
blank
Some few months before he went into
Office. and when he was looking for
votes. Hanson. then Farley 2. Chris
tensen s deputy. issued a newspaper
proclamation TO the effect chat Charles
T. Durand, the notorious Murray Jus,
tice of the peace. was TO be put out Of
business, and that his alleged conspir
acy with the Luke collection agency
was 10 he broken up. Accordingly he
had Durand arrested on a charge of
threatening TO kill a Murray editor
He mad him arrested jointly with the
Lukes on n charge of conspiracy. and
he fled petition III the District Court
accusing Durand OF unlawful acts us
Justice of the peace and demanding his
removal.
Cases Allowed to Die.
None of these has ever been brought
to trial. Hanson allowed them to due.
and the farthest he ever got was his
newspaper bid for notoriety when he
started them. it may be only a coinci-
Gence, but IT is nevertheless a fact that
Durand supported Hanson for County
Attorney, even though Hanson had
started all kinds of prosecutions against
him. Hanson carried Murray, and, 10
H., E,r hay
is a possible significance IN the fact
that David NJ. Haigh, Durand S private
attorney, was made one Of Mr. Han
son s deputies. With his great aud
good friend Mr.. Haigh on deck to pro
tcct his interests, Durand is IN little
fear of prosecution so long as the Han
son regime lasts in the prosecuting at
torney's Office.
It was Hanson, too, VINO started the
embezzlemeut prosecution against
"Mutton Bill Jones of nirmary no.
toriety, though Hanson finally baked
at prosecuting the case and made his
nominal superior. Farley P, prosecute
it. Even with Hanson s valuable as
sistance, Farley p, after threc GAYS
OF strenuous eDdeavor, failed TO prove
the corpus delicti. In the classic iau-
euagc of "BiH' Newton, ''neithcr
ParIey p. nor Hanson knows the dis
ference between the corpus deficit and
scuttlc II coal.
That Jordan River Case.
Some weeks ago the County ComInis
sioners and the City Council decided TO
cooperate to blow distractions out of
the Jordan River and thus prevent the
Inundating of farms northwest IF Salt
Lake. In the process some carp, watch
had been fattening for years on city
sewage and which were not i5 f1-, Il
dog, much less a human being, TO eat,
were killcl.
The prosecutor got busy at once. He
proclaimed that laws forbidding the
destruction Of game fish with dyna-
mite had been broken. Forgotten was
the law against unlawful cohabitation
which was being violated daily by
Hanson s political creators. In his
anxiety To prosecute the yandals who
had blown up the filthy carp, Hanson
even forgot the Sheets case ard the
Fillmore T1stoffice frauds. Hc issued
warrants forthwith. and started 81
kinds of trouble.
Couaty missioner Macknv. Han
s7n' political @rcnG tried tp reason
with him, but the appeal to reason was
with Hanson, Mr.. Mackay forgot the
injunction of his church to ''5wear not
at all, and gave it as his deliberate
opinion that Hanson is, was and al
ways will be ''n - - fool. The
men who blew out the obstructions and
killed a few fish were acquitted on Mr.
Mackay's testimony,
Wallace Arson Case.
Hanson had man named Wallace
and his wife arrested for setting fire
10 an Oregon Short Line box car which
contained goods belonging to them,
Being particularly anxious to stand
well with the Short Line officials, he
made a desperate effort 10 secure u
conviction in this case. but all in vain.
The couple were discharged by City
Judge c. B. Diehl and 0orcn X. Chris.
tcnsen, attorney for the defendants.
made n monkey Of Hanson from the
time The trial started until it ended
Hanson is now considerably in doubt as
to his standing at the Oregon Short
Line headquarters
1t is the Sheets case, however, that
nas been the bitterest gall and worm,
wood which Hanson has had to swal-
low. Three times he has had Chief of
Police Sheets arrested. Twice he has
been thrown out of the District Court
because of his inability to draw -1p a
complaint that would "stick,' and a
Ghc fate awaits him the third time,
for he is standing on complaint now
which Judge Armstrong has once
luashed.
IWlce hanson mas mad good legal
talent 10 assist him in the Sheets case
The first time he had the late ex-Sen.
stor Arthur Brown, and the second time
ne had Judge o. n Hilton of Den
yer The third time he is more than
ever foredoomed to failure, for Cover
nor Cutler in a moment OF temporary
alteration. has 5addled Attorney Gen
sral N. a. Breeden onto him as spe
rial prosecutor,
Loofbourow Net to Blame.
Hanson has tried TO shift upon Dis
:riet Attorney. Loofbohrow the respon
,;bility for his second failure in tn,
5heets case, because Mr.. Loofbourow
aot Hanson, is the prosecutor in tn,
District Court; where the failure oc
,urred. But Mr.. Loofbourow len u Il
blame. Wise in his day and generation
Mr.. Loofbonrow copied Hanson s com
olaint in the lower court bodily-wor,
Tor word-into the information whicl
he fled IL the District Court. So, il