Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-09-26
SUPERIOR COURT.
Stephen Ferguson Gets 10 Mos.
For Assault with Dangerous
Weapon-Other Cases
Disposed of


a charge of breaking and entering and
larceny from the store OF E. p. Files
of Clinton on June II of this year.
OF most interest perhaps was the
trial Of stephen Ferguson of North
Monmouth, which occupied the great
er part of the day. The respondent was
held on the charge of assault and bat
terry with intent to kill upon Joseph
A. Dignart, also of North Monmouth.
After the jury had been drawn Coun-
ty Attorney w. H. Fisher opened the
prosecution by calling Mr.. Dignart to
the stand, who testified as to his COM
! ing across Wilson pond on the morn
ing of Sept /. 1914, in his motor boat.
He stated that upon tieing up his boat
he picked up his coat and dinner pail
and proceeding upon his way across
| the dam, which was then under con-
struction, met Ferguson. Ferguson, he
| claimed, after words, struck him and
a fight ensued. Both men grappled and
| landed upon the ground beside the dam
and it was during this struggle that
Dignart was bitten by Ferguson in
several places. The former succeeded
in getting a strangle hold on FNergu-
son but was forced to let go when
DillSIl uStply III TIE lpItllilSeI. DOM
got up and as Dignart was STOPPING
TO reach his coat and dinner pail he
received q blow on the head with an
iron pin which Ferguson had picked
up; he started to run and was follow
ed by the respondent, and in all re-
ceived three wounds on the head and
several on the arm and body when
Mrs. Ferguson, the mother of Stephen,
appeared. She had come to the scene
after she had been Informed by a Mr.
Wedge, another of the witnesses, that
| trouble was going on there. She took
hold of her son when the father ar
rived. The son Immediately went to the
house. What became of the iron pin
Mr.. Dignart could not say but he stat
ed that it was in young Ferguson's
| hand when the boys mother and
| father arrived.
| Dignart was in the basement of the
mill where he was going to work when
! DR.. Charles NJ. Randlett, who had
been summoned, arrived DR.. Randlett
| testified that the plaintiff had received
three quite severe scalp wounds and
! several other wounds from which he
had been bleeding freely, and that he
adjudged them to have been inflicted
| by some instrument with sharp
edge rather than a blunt surface.
Other witnesses including VIM S
Maxwell Of Monmouth, VIM, Berry of
Monmouth, Charles Wilbur of Mon
mouth, Peter Wedge and Mrs Emma
| Tracy, both also of Monmouth, testi-
| fed that they had witnessed the affair
! in part and had seen Dignart struck
| by Ferguson
| The respondent was represented by
Messrs. Fogg and Southland and was
| called to the stand by Mr.. Fogg in
! opening the defence. His testimony
was in conflict with that of Mr.. Dig
! mart in several marked instances. He
stated that in crossing the dam on
| the morning of Sept. l and meeting
| Dignart the latter was the first to
speak and strike. He stated that Dig
mart had grappled with him when he
struck his first blow. The mixup on
the ground was corroborated with the
exception that it was the Strangling
which re received from Dignart that
made him bite. A pine board about
three inches wide and 20 inches long
and which bore marks of blood, was
produced by the defence, which Fer
guson confessed to have used as a
weapon in striking Dignart. 1t was at
ter they had both broken loose and
Dignart had started to run away, had
stubbed his toe and got up, and had
turned and faced, him that Ferguson
struck him with the board. He admit
ted to have struck him three times,
and Of throwing the board away when
he perceived his mother coming. This
nv nf
both the father and mother, who said
that Stephen had nothing in his hands
when they arrived upon the scene
George L. Barton, Mr.. Walker, Harry
Hallowell, Mr.. Mckinney and E. L. Don,
nell all testified that Stephen Ferguson
had held a good reputation since they
had known him. This was to some ex-
tent rebutted by the testimony of certain
incidents in which the respondent had
been involved, one being that Of his
knocking man down in Leeds after the
man had struck him with horsewhip.
In his address to the jury Mr.. Fogg
contended that the affair was one which
should be termed a fight in which both
participants were equally responsible for
the consequences. He maintained that
the evidence showed no intent to kill,
that it was an affair which nothing would
substantiate as being premeditated, and
which the evidence went to show was not
only enacted but conceived on the morn
ing of Sept. l when the plaintiff and the
respondent met.
County Attorney Fisher called the at
tention of the jury to the facts brought
out by the evidence that actual blows
had been struck with a dangerous
weapon. and cautioned concerning the
probability of a deliberate intent to seek
trouble with Dignart on the part of Fer
guson.
In mastery way Judge Beane in
structed the jury concerning the value OF
evidence. and with equal skill summar-
tied the case as leading to one of five
verdicts: not guilty guilty of assault,
guilty of assault and battery. guilty of