Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1915-06-07
HARD" WORK OF
POLICE JUDGES
IN RECORD FORM
Does Not Exceed a Daily Aver
age of Two Hours in Any
Court.
THIS APPLIES TO THE
CASE OF EACH OFFICIAL
A Brief Review of First Grim
inaI Court Operations Bears
Out Contentious.

Taking up the case of the work of
the police judges to further empha-
size the crying need of a third po-
lice court for Newark, or to demon
strate that there is absolutely no
necessity, as there has certainly been
no public demand. for 1t. the daily
doings, during the month of May. in
the First Criminal Court, presided
over by Judge Horace (. Grice, are
given in general way.
1t must be said at the outset that in
the First court the clerks attend to a
large volume of work IN connection
with matters concerning violations of
city ordinances.
There is no question as to the aecu-
racy of the working schedule, the
time being so approximately correct
that where there may be deviation
of two or three minutes, Ii applies
either way. The judges did not de-
vote more than an average of two
hours day TO active court duties dur
ing the month, from the time they ar
rived at the respective police stations,
where sittings are held, until they
took their departure from the station
houses for the day. This is with the
probable exception of Judge Mancusi-
Ungaro.
No Chambers" Sessions.
There is nothing to show that police
judges. like chancellors and vice.
chancellors, for instance, hold sessions
In chambers" They go and come
and that appears to be all there is TO
1t, the routine features being attended
to by the clerical forces. The tax
payers, however, are interested in
knowing what they pay for services
and whether work performed is COM
mensurate with the money paid The
question has arisen over the appoint
ment of third police court judge, not
that the new judge is H. Edward
Wolf, and the appropriating of $500
to defray the expenses of the extra
position.
1t seem to be, as it should be, an
impersonal matter, so far as the in
oumbent of the position is concerned,
the criticism being more as to
whether the police Judge force should
be increased and on the basis of an
added expenditure of SIS, 200 per year.
contemporary suggests that, in
the face of the discussion over the
problem. there should be an investi-
cation, and goes so far as to state
that a police judge should possess a
deep knowledge of human nature. as
much as legal qualificatio in han
ding the cases that are brought be-
fore the police courts.
All In the Same Boat.
On Saturday the Evening Star re-
lated something about the work that
Judge Wolf Is called upon to perform,
and stated that other judges were in
the same boat In this regard The
finance committee of Common Coun-
Gil has refused to allow an item of
5000 in the tax ordinance, for the
payment of Judge Wolf and his two
clerks.
Judge Grice's circuit is confined to
the First precinct. 1t formerly took
in the Third precinct.
The First Precinct Police Court
schedule shows that Judge Grice was
not required to put in more than an
average of two hours work daily In
the month of May, calculating from
the time he arrived at the station
house until court adjourned and he
had left for the day. There are days
tnat ne spent TWO nOufS ana thirty
minutes at the police court, and there
are days when an even hour covered
the period of attendance. The time
ranges from two hours and thirty
minutes, with fractional periods of
time intervening. Court sessions are
not held Sundays and on Memorial
Day 0May 31) Judge Grice did not
show up at all, Police Captain CAT
frey paroling persons charged with
offenses on Saturday for appearance
on Tuesday morning.
During the month, on May 20, Judge
Grice held court in the afternoon.
There was jury trial on an overseer
of the poor complaint. This took up
two hours.
Outside of number of cases
brought by the Society for the Pre-
vention of Cruelty to Animals num-
ber of Board of Health cases and
complaints from the overseer of the
poor, a cocaine selling incident, row
in a Greek restaurant, a false pre-
tense case argument and a burglary
matter, the calendar contained moth
ing but drunk and disorderly entries,
lettering and similar minor charges
to be disposed Of
But, with everything taken into con-
sideration, the judges daily working
time in this court does not exceed
two-hour average.