Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1911-12-29
THE FAULKNER CASE AGAIN.
Attorney o'Brlen Presents Defendant,
Side OF the Case.
tDeerfeld Valley Times, Dec. 2i.l

EultOr DeeTnelu valley Times.
Dear Sir:-Upon my return from New
York today a copy of your paper dated
Dec. s has come to my attention in
which | note the publication of a letter
from Il. F. Sharp, inspector, referring
to the Faulkner case.
In Justice to Miss Faulkner and that
the public may know the exact status
of the disposition of said case l beg to
submit the truth in respect thereof:
On october 10, 1911, Miss Faulkner was
indicted in the following language:
And the grand Jurors aforesaid, on
their oath aforesaid, do further present
that Ada May Faulkner, of Whining
ton, In the county of Windham. in the
state and district of Vermont, on the
18th day of August, A. D., 1909, at whit
ingham, in the county of Windham, in
the state and district of Vermont and
within the jurisdiction of this court un-
lawfully did knowingly deposit for mail
ing and cause to be deposited for mail
ing in the post office of the said United
States, at Jacksonville, in Nottingham,
aforesaid, a certain postal card, then
bearing the address following. to wit:
Mr.. Leon Wheeler, Champion Fighter,
Wilmington, VT and whereupon was
then written as follows, to wit:
az hear you are going away to
school, what for? For fighting l suppose.
The say you are the best one in town
now, and it is all you do is to. practice.
All our boys like Church. All glad you
got your and are going to
make new acquaintance. You'll like
them for at first they'll think you made
the world. Here we know YOU didn't
but you help to keep things right by
your power in town and overseeing.
Truly yours, guess. You like me. hon
est you do, but had to tease you, as I
heard you wanted your trouble hushed
up, you see l heard of it. didn't ~
and so the grand Jurors aforesaid, upon
their oath aforesaid, do say tina the
said Ada May Faulkner, on the day and
year aforesaid, within the city and dis
trict aforesaid, in manner and form
aforesaid, did knowingly deposit for
mailing and cause to be deposited for
mailing a postal card upon which were
written scurrilous and d~efamatory cpl
thets, terms and language obviously in
tended to reflect injuriously upon the
character and conduct of another. to
wit: of the addressee thereof, contrary
to the form of the statute in such case
made and provided and against the peace
and dignity of the United States of
America"
To the above count in said indictment
Miss Faulkner entered a plea of guilty
through her attorney and was fined the
sum of two hundred dollars.
There were ten other counts in said
lnulClfnenl all OF Wnlcn were mol pressed
upon motion of the district attorney.
The public will know that Miss
Faulkner was not indicted on the charge
of writing any matter of an obscene
character; that said case was not tried
in court; that she was not found guilty
in court and that no evidence was intro
duced in the case. She simply pleaded
guilty to the count above set forth in
full and that was all.
There was no agreement between my
self and the district attorney in ref
erence to what her fine would be on the
above plea as that matter is always left
to the presiding judge and neither Judge
Martin nor the district attorney enter
into such agreements.
| know not what the district attorney
or Mr.. Sharp may think about Miss
Faulkner's writing "all the letters" but
do strenuously object to Mr.. Sharp's
statement that I am inclined to such a
belief, as l do not believe Miss Faux
ner wrote a single letter referred to in
said Indictment.
1, too. am sorry If Miss Faulkner, per-
haps ignorantly misrepresented the mat
ter, but | am also sorry to know that
Mr.. Sharp also took the responsibility
to misrepresent the disposition of this
case as displayed in his letter to you
of Dec. 4.
After reading the above count in the
indictment. the postal card which Miss
Faulkner was charged with mailing, and
the contents thereof. to which Miss
Faulkner entered a plea of guilty, the
public can then Judge whether she
was charged with writing said card
or whether there was anything obscene
therein.
The above statement throughout may
be verified from the records of the clerk
of the United States circuit court at
Rutland, if my version of the matter is
doubted in the least.
Knowing that you desire the public
to know 1.-The whole truth about this
matter and thanking you exceedingly for
the courtesy extended in printing the
above, | am,
Your obedient servant,
ERNEST II. O'BRIEN,
Attorney for Miss Faulkner.
Rutland, VT, Dec. is, 1911.
The Times also published the following
editorial statement:
In our issue of Dec. s, wherein APP
peared the letter from Inspector Sharp
above referred to, we stated that so far
as this paper was concerned discussion
OF the matter was definitely ended. We
had given Miss Faulkner's version of the
case in a previous issue. Inspector
Sharp's letter was printed verbatim and
was corroborated, in general terms by
letters, opies of which we have on file,
ffS ~h.hC ~ am NAAh
United States Marshal Horace w.
Bailey, and presumably represented the
governments version of the case.
Lest any injustice be lone Miss
Faulkner through the publication of
Inspector Sharp's letter, we have made
an exception and print above her at
torney's version of the matter, which
deals more specifically with the count
to which Miss Faulkner plead guilty. So
far as we can discover the indictment on
this particular count does not contain
the word obscene" nor does the Ian
guage on the card seem to call for such
description. Taken singly, we doubt If a
sealed letter containing similar matter
would be actionable. The other counts,
being mol pressed, do not, as we under
stand it, have any bearing on the legal
status of the case.
1T was not due to any initiative on
the part of the Times that this matter
was aired in print. We do not believe
the government desires any public credit
for its part in the case, and we fail to
see wherein the defendant has gained
any. Our advice to both parties in the
discussion is to let it drop"