Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1909-10-20
District Court

ed in a disagreement. Nine of the
Jurors stood for acquittal and three
stood for conviction. The case
occupied three entire days of the
courts undivided attention, begin
ming on Tuesday morning and end
ing on Thursday evening. The
case went to the jury at $50
Thursday evening and at o'clock
the following morning Judge Gil
lett discharged the jury upon being
assured by the jurors that there
was no possibility of an agreement.
This is a controversy that has
been thrashed over and over again
in the courts and newspapers dur
ing the past year. 1t seems that it
is destined to hang on several years
longer, until the individual liti-
gants and the county will have
expended thousands of dollars.
One arrest on a charge of perjury
has already resulted from it and
Others may follow.
In 1907 D. M. Circle of Kiowa
and Amanda !. Potter of Chilli
cothe, Mo, traded, the former con-
veying farm and the latter drug
store. The evidence shows that
each resorted to questionable
means and suits followed. Mrs.
Potter secured judgment against
Circle in a civil action for about
$1,000. Circle appealed to the
supreme court. Mrs. Potter's at
torneys then got the consent Of the
attorney general to bring a crimi.
nal action against Circle. He was
released in a preliminary trial be-
fore Justice Buchanan at Kiowa
and second preliminary was held
before Justice Collins in this city
and he was held for trial The
trial was held last week and the
jury disagreed and he will be tried
, again in February.
One of the greatest obstacles in
the way of the prosecution is the
fact that it was begun SO late,
after the Statute Of limitations had
about run. The defendant and his
attorneys say it was brought to
pTpel him to abandon his appeal
now pending in the supreme court,
in the civil case, and tine prosecu.
tion of the case two years after the
alleged crime makes itappear that
way. The fact that two different
county attorneys did not think that
the evidence warranted a prosecu-
ton and that a non. resident be-
: comes the complaining witness so
very late, when she was in posses.
sion of the facts so long, makes it
difficult to secure a conviction.
The following jury sat in the
case:
j. A. Chadwick G. c. Price
John Cullison A. A. Smith
II. P. Hartley Arthur Murlett
G. r. Harris Roy Doran
Floyd Fullerton Robt. Ruggles
Albert Hada E.J. Grigsby
Noble & Tincher, who are Mrs.
Potter'S attorneys in the civil suit,
prosecuted. ]. d. Houston of
Wichita, F. F. Perry of Kiowa,
and Samuel Griffin of this city,
represented Mr.. Circle.
The case Of State VS.! Joe Hargis
was taken up on Friday morning
and tried before the following jury:
HI. E. Rucker Warren Simpson
John CulliSOn II. o. Williams
l.. A. Draper r. j. GrigSby
w. L. Utterback Floyd Fullerton
George Mote w. B. Duncan
G. r. Harris Walter Jackson
HargiS was charged with assault
with intent to kill. The complain
ing witness was Vinton Shmidl.
In February of the present year
HargiS cut Schmidt quite seriously
in the face with small pocket
knife but the wound has since
healed. Mr.. ShmidI had been a
, terRnt of A. ]. Hargis's, the de-
fendant's father, and they did not
get along. Shmidl complained
that Hargis had taken his feed and
turned cattle on his crops and i'm
posed on him generally. At the
time of the trouble he was COM
planning of his treatment to Tonk
Mills, in Fred Lakes store at Lake
City. Joe Hargis was in the store
and took it up. As to what took
place before Hargis cut Shmidl
there was conflicting testimony.
Shmidl testified that Hargis attack
ed him without warning him while
Hargis claims that Shmidl was the
aggressor. 1t was agreed by both
yarties that each cursed the other,
gut the point at issue resolved it.
~ Y into the proposition as to
which was the aggressor.
The case went to the jury at
o:3o Friday night and at { o'clock