Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1920-04-10
COURT RULES ON
ADM|sSIB|L|TY
Of EVIDENCE IN
WOOTTON TRIAL
Defense Will Not Be Permit
ted to Show |, w. W, AC-
tiVitieS Outside of War;
rem Mining District,
WITNESS THREATENED
FOR STAYING ON JOB
Was Told Property Would
Be Destroyed and That
His Family Would Be Run
Out of Town Baref0oted,

az Hosniso JOURNAL SPECIAL Is $40 wt""'
Tombstone, Ariz., April 9.-'The
defense in the case of Harry p,
Wootton, charged with Kidnapping
in connection with the Eisbee de-
portations of July II, 1917, will
not be permitted to introduce evi-
dence tending to show activities of
the Industrial Workers of the
World outside of the Warren min
ing district, except in so far as
such activities hear on conditions
in that district at that time, Judge
Samuel l.. Pattee ruled today.
The defense will be allowed,
however, to offer its documents
separately, but if the exhibits fall
within the class objected to by the
court, they will he excluded, Judge
Pattee announced.
Judge Pattcc's Opinion.
Judge Pattee made known his
views in a written opinion, which
II was understood would he supple
mented by further expression at a
future time. The text of the opin-
ion follows, in part;
at is not perceived how the con-
duct of the members of the q, w.
W. organization in other places
and at other times can bear upon
and throw any light upon the sit
uation existing in the Warren dis
trict. 1t is not what was done in
other places by other persons,
Though they may ail have been
members of the common society,
that created the peril, if peril there
was, which would excuse the con-
duct of the defendant. only in so
lso far as the acts or conduct or
writings bore upon the situation in
that district can the evidence be
admissible, and this view would
necessarily exclude a mass of doc
umentary evidence presented, con-
Sisting of correspondence between
the officers and members of the I.
w. w. relating to conditions and
acts or proposed acts in other
places, not having to do with the
situation at Risbee. Such doCu-
ments must therefore be held in
competent and the offer of them as
evidence rejected. 1t has been inn
possible i'm the time the court has
had to consider these matters to at
tempt to select from the mass of
documents those coming within
this class but to preserve the rec
ord, counsel are entitled to offer
them separately, when, IL they
come within the class indicated,
they will be excluded, if proper OBJ
jections are made"
Kimbrough Threatened.
G.. j. Kimbrough. a farmer of
McNeal, who continued at work IN
the mines after the Bisbee strike
was called said he was threatened
with having his property burned
and his family run out of town
barefooted" If he did not join the
strike. The witness said that rs
the result of this threat he sent his
family to Texas and obtained per
mission from the authorities to
carry a gun,
Efforts to get John f. Skinner,
a hotel keeper of Cochise, to testi-
~ as to a conversation alleged to
rave been held with six men at his
ranch Immediately after the de-
portations, were unsuccessful. De-
spite an avowal by Frank Il. Curley,
of counsel for the defense, that he
intended to show that these six
men had admitted to Skinner that
they took part in "the Bisbee
trouble, had escaped the sheriff
and had planned to destroy the Bis
bee camp, being beaten to it by
one day." Judge Pattee declined to
permit the witness to testify as TO
this matter, holding that there was
not sufficient evidence adduced to
connect the men with the Bisbee
strike. SINNERS ranch was about
twenty-five miles from Bisbee,