Valdez daily prospector., 1912-03-21
THE SEARCHLI0HT OF PUBLIC
 lTY.


 grievance against his cX-valet, Folke E. Brandt, he no doubt be- licved the matter was disposed of when he sentenced the unfOrtun- ate foreigner to 30 years in the penitentiary. It is such willing tools as Judge Rosalsky appears 10 have been which has caused the present agitation for a law which would make their recall possible and has shown the power of pub llcity to right wrong. No Soon- CT Is the searching light of pub licity turned on the cOnspirators who robbed Brandt of his liberty to gratify Millionaire Schin''s ven- Scancc than they hasten to eX- plain or confess. The Portland Orcgonian says the panic among Brandt's accuSers and the judge and police officers, who arc ac- cused of a conspiracy to railroad tho valet to prison for 30 years, goes far to sustain the version of the case given by Brandt and his lawyers. This is that, after his discharge by Schiff, Brandt went to Schiff's house one even ing at the invitation of a mem Der of the family, that he had an altercatiOn with Schiff and was arrested at the latter's request; that, after pleading not guilty to a charge of burglary, he was in- duced to plead guilty by the promise of light sentence; that police officers conspircd with de- tectivcs and lawyers employed by Schiff to manufacture a false criminal record for him; that Judge ROSalSky, in examining him, tried to trap him into an admission of guilt; that the men concerned in the conspiracy had a conference with ROsalsky four days before sentence was passed.
 COrrob0rating this version of the case are these facts: Police Lieutenant Woodbridge confesscs to the grand jury that the report on BrandfS record which he signed was false: Bourne. the servant whose statement that Brandt broke into Schin's house formed the main basis of the burglary charge, breaks down ut terly on the witness stand and cannot recall the events to which he formerly testified; Justice Gerard grants BranduS release on writ of habeas corpus after severely conforming Rosalsky's conduct. holding in effect that the trial was no trial at all; tho at tOrney-general and district attor- ney oppose the writ only on the legal ground that the case can- not be opened, but expresses a purpose to sift il to the bottom; ROsalsky hurriedly grants a new trial five years after the man has been sent tO DanncmOra prison; Governor Dix hastens steps to- wards granting a pardon. This stampede to right a wrong is the fruit of publicity.
 The means by which Brandt was imprisoned find a parallel in these days only in the terrorism or the Russian police or of a Spanish-American dcspot. They have a close family resemblance to the letters de cachct which the French kings granted to their fla Voritcs and which ordered the imprisonment of person in the bastilc for even indefinite term without trial and even without in- formation as to the nature of his Offense. Such crimes es that committed against Brandt could only be committed in the Unit cd States in q state and city ruled by such an organization as Tam many, which regards official DOW CT solely as the means of Rratify- ing the greed, ambition or ven- Rcancc of it's members. A state thus ruled is an oligarchy, hav- ing a republican government on- ly in form.
 The Brandt case is ample reply to those men, most numerous and influential in New York, who con- dcmn criticism of the courts as attacks on the integrity of the Judiciary and who oppose the re- call of judges as destructive of their independence. But for such criticism, Brandt might have served the full 30 years in pris- on and rotted there. The recall may be the only means of getting rid of such judges as Rosalsky in q state where all the machin-