The Clayton news. (Clayton, N.M.) 19??-1954, 1915-07-17
volving upon him by virtue of the

/ AS to the second charge, IL was
shown by the evidence that the de-
fendant was seen in a saloon gam
bling; that he had offered TO stake
a gambler; that his autos, whose
stand was in front of his pool-room,
were run back and forth from that
place carrying passengers TO a house
OF prostitution outside the corpor-
ate limits of Clayton, and that he
had heard of one of his deputies
having frequently violated the law
by gambling and had taken no steps
to cancel his commission. The
Court must take this evidence into
consideration.
We come now TO the charge of
bribery. II is proved conclusively
that when a carnival was in Clay
ton in May, 1913, the gamblers went
around among themselves and rails
ed a purse of $4,000. At that time
they told each other that this mon
ey was to be given TO the sheriff
for protection from arrest during
the carnival. Mr.. Eklund had
charge of the money after il was
raised, and he admitted upon the
witness stand that he had told Mr..
EasterwOOd that he had given this
$4,000 to Judge Toombs, then and
now the defendants attorney. But
when placed upon the witness stand
Mr.. Eklund told an entirely differ
ent story. He said that he had agreed
TO raise $4,000 TO give TO the car
nival that he raised but $4,000 of
this among the business houses, and
the balance from the saloon men
or gamblers. II is significant that
while he could tell who subscribed
for every dollar Of the $4,000, he
could not give the name of a sim
gle subscriber to the $4,000 fund.
He paid with currency, not check;
took no receipt had no cOrrespOn-
dence, and could not remember the
name of the person or company TO
whom he had paid all this money.
When giving this evidence he had
the same smile on his face as when
he said II did what | could TO keep
them from gambling as if the
whole of it was some colossal joke.
Gray and Carson told a similar
story. In fact the story of the
carnival contribution" was never
heard Of until few days before this
trial, and the whole thing was so
improbable and unreasonable that
no sane man could give it credence.
The fact that such a story should
be resOrted to at all, shows that il
is an abOrtive effort TO protect some
person or persons higher up All
the evidence, when taken together
and fairly considered, indicates un-
erringly who those persons are.
Now, | am very sorry TO have to
say these things. am still mora
sorry TO have 10 do what ! am about
to do in this case. | have sentenced
two men TO be hanged with less pain
than | experience now. II seems
clear TO me what ! should do. There
is but one thing for a public officer
to do and that is TO go ahead and
perform his sworn duty regardless
of his own feelings and what criti-
cism may be heaped upon him.
The decree of this court will be
that the defendant, RObt. T. Man.
sken, be suspended from Office pend
ing a final hearing in this case as
provided by law.
Now, as TO his successor. In about
six weeks there will be the next
regular term of this Court. Who
ever is appointed will have charge
Of practically all the preparations
incident TO such term. He should,
therefore, be familiar with the du-
ties of the sheriff's Office, and in
addition that, he should be a fear
less and efficient officer. The only
person that I know of who meets
all these requirements is T. ]. Crum-
ley, and ] am going 10 appoint him
to I'LL the vacancy. Now, l know this
appointment will be criticized. I
know just exactly what some peO-
pie will say about il; but a cOndi-
tion cOnfrOnts the court that must
be met.|I know Mr.. Crumley TO be
one of the most efficient officers in
the district nd believe in his cOur-