New Britain herald., 1914-05-12
FINES IMPOSED FOR
 BECKER TRIAL SLIP
JudQc DiSb;ItvcS Honest Misttke'' of C|ob5 Publication Company.

! New York, May 12.-Justice Sea 1 bury punished the New York Globe l and three members of it's staff last evening for publishing prematurely 1 last Saturday morning the text of Dis- trict Attorney Whitman's opening ad- | dress to the Becker jury. together with an imaginary account of how Charles Becker and his wife were affected by ! the address,
 Refusing to accept the plea that the Globe made an honest mistake, Justice Seabury, after a severe commentary on the episode, fined the Globe com pany $250, Henry John Wright, the 1 editor of the newspaper, $250; George T. Hughes. the city editor, $250. and Charles T. Brodhead, the reporter at the Becker trial, $250.
 Stanchfleld Defends Prisoners. John B. Stanchfield appeared for the newspaper and it's three em- ployes. MT. Stanchfield, opening his plea at 5 D. m., denied practically nothing that had been charged in the complaint. With his characteristic courtesy and suavity MT. Stanchfield argued merely that the Globe. active ly in competition with evening news papers and required to issue an edition at about the time court was to have begun on Saturday morning, felt sat- isfied from the information obtained from MT. Brodhead that there would be no interruption of the trial and that the district attorney would begin his address at the time expected.
 Similar blunders had been made by newspapers, Mir. Stanchf1eld con- tended, and he hoped that the court would believe that no disrespect was intended in this case and that the mis- take was an honest one.
 His Imaginary Story.
 Justice Seabury pointed out that the real contempt lay not so much in the premature publication of the district attorneys address as in the imaginary story of how Becker and his wife were affected by the address.
 The person writing that statement" continued Justice Seabury. and caus- Ing that statement to be set up in type and printed in advance of the deliv- cry of the address of the district at- torney- must have known that that statement had no basis in fact. x
 The, whole qualification constituted a false and grossly inaccurate report : of the proceedings of the court at it's session on May g. 1914. All of the resp pondents. are, ,sin some degree. re- sponsible for that publication, and the court adjudges them guilty of d contempt. Of court. s. r'' {,
 Judicial proceedings in the courts of this county. are. consistently mis- represel1te ~ M t the sp ublics press, and the eadmfnistfntfon of Justice is thero- by embarrassed and impeded. The power of the. courts in this state to protect the administration of justice from this abuse is very limited. In New 'England, Massachusetts and New Jer- sey, and in some of the other states, the courts are clothed with ample power to correct such abuse
 Power of State.
 "The courts of this state, however. have conferred upon them power to punish as a contempt the publication of false and grossly inaccurate ac- count of it's proceedings. The publi- cation in question is clearly of this character. Not only was the address of the district attorney not delivered but the alleged description of the ef- feet of the address upon the defen- dant and his wife shows the utter dis regard of truth which actuated those responsible for it's publication, and the reckless manner in which so-called news is manufactured
 Under the circumstance feel that I have no right to ignore this offence. To do so would reflect upon the ad- ministration of justice. While I do not wish to act harshly, or to humili ate by Imprisonment those responsible for this contempt. I do feel that the punishment to be imposed should be sufficient to emphasize the reprehen- sible character of the act and to serve as warning in the future which may deter others from repeating it. Il shall impose the maximum fine which the law permits.''