South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-07-08
DU VAL IS FREED
ON JURY.S REPORT
Find Man Sane and Hold He is
Not Dangerous to Have at
Large = Found Insane IN
Justices Court.

After being ont only 20 minutes
Wednesday afternoon the speclal jury
in the superior court found Charies
Du Val TO be not insane and 70 De
man not dangerous 10 have az large
Following this hnding OF the jury,
Judge Ford ordered the man released
from custody at the county jail.
The case was taken up wednesday
morning and the verdict Of the Jury
was returned at 4:45 O'Clock. me
Jury returned their verdict on inter-
rogatories submitted By the court,
one being in reference TO the man
sanity and the other IN reference as
10 whether or not IL was dangerous
for him 10 be at large. on the ques-
zion of his sanity the Jury agreed on
the first ballot on the second ques-
ton two ballots were necessary as
the vote on the first stood II 10 /.
Unusual interest was attached 10
the case for the reason that this was
the first time that jury had been
called in the county, or. so Far az
known, in the state, for the purpose
of trying a cause arising from petit
ton for a writ Of habeaS corpus. The
plaintiff had peutOned for such
writ on the grounds that he was illeg-
ally held at the jail as an insane per-
son. The court refused TO take the
responsibility OF deciding as to the
sanity OF the man.
From the beginning the trial de-
velOped into a contest between Judge
Ford and Stuart MacKibbin, who,
with Frank Gilmer. represented the
plaintiff. The judge maintained that
the issues before the court were as 10
the sanity OF the plaintiff. while. coun-
sci for the plaintiff maintained that
the issues involved the question as 10
whether or not the man had been
illegally incarcerated AS result OF
this difference Of opinion the pro
cedure OF the defense, represented
by Deputy Pros Dan Nye. was met
continuously by objections
Du Val was found TO be insane by
lunacy commission sitting in Justice
Wypiszynski's court on May 10. The
testimony given before the commits
sion by Du Vals wife and others was
20 the effect that Du Val had become
unbalanced over religion as taught by
Pastor Russell of the international
Bible Students association, so that he
had become a menace 10 his wife and
his friends.
The first action by counsel for the
plaintiff Wednesday morning was TO
move to quash the venire for the rea-
son that it had not been made ac-
cording TO law. in that it had been
selected by the sheriff instead of by
as were nearly all others by the plain
tiff. was overruled.
objection was also made TO the
swearing of the jury for the reason
that there was no law authorizing the
empaneling of a jury in a habeas cor
pus action. Another objection was
raised when the court instructed the
jury before the introduction of evil
dence was begun. The Instructions
were that the issues were as TO the
sanity of the plaintiff and that the
jury would be asked TO render their
verdict on interTOgatOries submitted
10y the court
During the course of the trial coun-
sci for the plaintiff sought in vain to
introduce evidence that the plaintiff
had been arrested without proper
warrants and had been held in the
county Jail without legal authority.
The case was tried before the fol-
lowing jurymen, all from Portage
township: Steve Heeczegs. 7. NJ. Mu-
cha, Joseph Sherman. Albert HagiI,
T.. Z. Brugger, +. S Bilinski, Ora
I;idinam, g. J. Johnson. Mike Nyer-
Ses, Martin Kowalski, August GeIide
and A. ). Geltner.