Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-11-02
JUDGE HALTS DETRACTORS
Rebukes Paper for Publishing Dis
torted Stories Concerning Court.
LESLIE LASHEs FAKE FACTORY
Deliberate Faisehood in Reporting
Outcome of Anderson Case and
Malicious Innuendo In Edi-
tOrlaI Utternnces.

Herald, his utterance being evoked by the
mallciously biased and inaccurate reports
published in that paper concerning the
trial Of the Anderson case in the county
court:
OMAHA Nov. Ito the Editor Of the
World-Herald: Ever since my nomination
for judge of the district court you have
persistently sought to create the impress
sion in the minds OF voters that | am
unfit for the office which 1 seek. News
stories, editorials and cartoons in which
you clearly imply this, have appeared in
the World-Herald from day to day; and
as II to crown these unwarranted at
tacks upon my Integrity, you printed last
Saturday a story on the preliminary hear
ing before me in county court nf Albert
Anderson, charged with perjury in regis
tering in the Third ward, which was
malicious in its misstatement of facts,
and which charged me, by indrection, at
least, with greater crime than that of
which the prisoner at bar was accused
namely the crime of acquitting a guilty
man for political reasons. And this story
was followed Sunday by an editorial
under the head, What is Omaha to Dor
in which you again attempt to create
false impression as to my action in the
Anderson case.
In these attacks you accuse me of the
gravest moral offenses of which a Judge
could be guilty, and 1 cannot rest in ST.
lence under them.
About Anderson Case.
''As to Anderson. The state failed alb
solutely to make a case against him, and
uva 60 do hut Rfu.
charge him. Lest you may dispute this.
let me say that John ]. Mahoney demo-
cratic candidate for police Judge, who
was the complaining witness against An
derson, had the manhood to say frankly
in my court Saturday morning in the
presence of three witnesses that 1 had
taken the only action in the case that an
honest judge could take County Attor-
ney James p. English said substantially
the same thing when interviewed Mr..
Piatt, deputy county attorney, and chair
man of the democratic county central
committee, expressed regret that the
World-Herald should have printed so in
accurate and unfair report of the case.
The reporter who wrote the report, when
taken to task by me for misstating the
facts, answered that perhaps he had gone
ing. But no correction of his false re-
port has since appeared in your paper.
State Failed Utterly.
In his report he said Anderson was
discharged on technicality. This is an
unqualified falsehood. He was discharged
because the state did not offer evidence
sufficient to warrant me in binding him
over to the district court. He was
oh NnrfNl, NH
failed to establish that he had taken an
oath, let alone a false one but it failed
to show that, If he had taken the oath
he was accused of taking, it would have
been a false one. Before the state can
convict a man of murder it must show
that somebody has been killed SO before
1t can convict a man of perjury it must
show that he took an OATH It failed to
show that Anderson took one, therefore
discharged him. little thought when
1 performed this simple act of duty that
was making myself an object Of attack
by the World-Herald, which implies that
did it for political reasons. 1 think,
however, that II 1 had been contemplate
enough to suffer political considerations
to dictate my action. should have bound
Anderson over. But by doing such a
thing should have lost my self-respect
not to speak of the respect of the demo-
cratic attorneys who were prosecuting
Anderson.
II shall be- called upon TO hear sixty
other cases of this nature, and in dispos-
ing of them you may be sure that 1 shall
disregard political consequences. Nor
will anything the World Herald or anyone
else has said. or may say. influence my
decisions in the least.
Another Consideration.
''The charge you indirectly make that 1
refused to send man to jail for political
reasons, If 1t were true, ought to spell, not
only my overwhelming defeat at the polls,
but it ought to subject me to an indefi-
nitely greater punishment than that would
involve. judge who would not send a
guilty man to jail for political reasons
would not hesitate to send an innocent
man there for such reasons. Nor am 1
sure he would hesitate to commit any
other crime against justice.
"'What is Omaha To Dor you ask.
and then proceed to relate %, that a
complaint was filed before Judge Craw-
ford recently, charging the defendant in
the case with fraudulent registration, (2)
that Judge Crawford gave as his reason
Tor releasing the defendant that there
had been a mistake In procedure and 90
that he pointed out that the proper course
for the state to have pursued would have
ben to prosecute the accused for perjury.
H Then you go on TO say that the next
case was prosecuted before me on a
perjury charge (giving the reader the
impression that the defendant brought
before me was the same one prosecuted
before Judge Crawford and that | dis
charged the accused on the ground that
II was necessary for the state to prove
that he had sworn before / could hold
that he had sworn falsely. 1 admit that
that was my ruling, nor did II require
very laborious thought on my part TO
arrive at the conclusion l reached. But
the man prosecuted before me was not
the man prosecuted before Judge Craw-
ford. The man prosecuted before Judge
Crawford was one Wilson. The man
prosecuted before me was the man An
derson whose case have been discussing.
Smart Political Practice.
''As to this man Wilson; When Judge
Crawford released him he suggested
plainly that a charge OF perjury would
lie AGAINST him WHY then In the name