Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-09-20

When will we get caught up with
the work of the courts?" That is
the question that Judges William P.
Martin and Harry Y. Osborne and
Prosecutor Louis Hoe d are asking
themselves at the present time. the
opening of the fall term OF court.
Naturally the volume of business
now following the summer vacation
is heavy, but it is not that that is
bothering the judges and the prose-
cutor. 1t is the fact that the busi-
ness of the courts and the prosecu-
tors office is growing so rapidly that
the present force is unable to keep
pace with the increase.
At the present time the Essex coun-
ty Jail is crowded to overlooking with
prisoners awaiting trial. In order to
relieve this condition Prosecutor Hood
has arranged to postpone for a short
period the trials of the Hotel Ma
valre and Little Hungary" rathskel-
Ter cases growing out of the raids of
April % last. The first of these trials,
that of the case against Cornelius j..
Harrington, proprietor of the Hotel
Navarro, was down for next Monday
before Judge Osborne.
Instead it has been postponed in
order to allow the two common pleas
Judges a chance to clean up other
work before starting on the trial of
the raid cases, which will occupy the
attention of one court for at least
week in the hearing of each case.
One reason for the congestion in
the criminal courts is the fact that
they are not exclusively criminal
courts. Essex county is large enough
to keep two courts working exclu-
sfvely on criminal matters, but as
it is now Judges Martin and Osborne
have a host OF other matters to look
after. Orphans Court, Common
Pleas Court matters, Naturalization
Court. employers liability act cases
and latest of all widows pension
cases have been given the two judges
of the Court of Common Pleas to
handle. As matter of fact the bust
ness that is of a civil nature now
takes M as much of the time OF
Judges Martin and Osborne as does
the handling of criminal cases.
and that is the appointment of a
third common pleas Judge for Essex
county. A third judge is surely need
ed. and until one is supplied the
business of the county courts Will
only get more and more congested, as
at present there is entirely too mucn
work for two judges to do, and the
work is growing in volume all the
time.
Prosecutor Louis Hood is believer
in early trials for people accused OF
crime. 'It is only fair to the ac-
cused that he be given an early trlaL
says Mr. Hood, land it Is only 1alr
to the State that he be given an early
trial By that I mean that no mat
fer how conscientious a witness may
be if a case is long delayed in COM
ing to trial his testimony in many
cases is not as valuable as If the
State had been able to use it within
a short time of the happening he is
testifying to.
with cases dragging along with
out trial witnesses become forget
full of the exact circumstances
as they saw them. / do not mean
wilfully so, but it stands to reason
that an occurrence is not as fresn
in a persons mind six months after
a thing has happened as It was SIX
weeks after. Then again when trials
are delayed there is always the
chance for witnesses being APP
preached by interested parties, or of
their leaving town, or even OF their
dying.
with the work congested as II is
at present the delay between the
finding of indictments against per-
sons and their trials is entirely too
long, but there seems to be no remedy
for II in sight"
Once more the lack of accommo-
dations for persons having business
in the Court House is eXemplitied by
reason of the taking over by the
prosecutors office of the room for
merly used as waiting room by fe-
male witnesses for the Grand Jury.
This room ON the second floor of
the Court House has been turned over
to the county detectives and the woln-
en- witnesses in its stead given