The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-11-18
HE LEFT RUFF KING TRIAL
Deputy Attorney General Then
Took Up Private Practice.
Trial of kuttIer Murder Fame in
Larned This Week.

Former policies of the attorney gem
erals office of working on both sides
of blue sky cases seem to have been
extended to criminal cases. Out at
Larned this week the Kuttler murder
case has been on trial. Richard j.
Hopkins, attorney general, appears as
chief counsel for the state in the pro-
secution of the case. Edgar Foster,
an assistant in Hopkins office, was a
leading attorney for the defendant
Records in, the case show Hopkins,
who receives a salary of $4,000 a year
was the chief counsel for the state in
the case altho he did not appear per-
sonally in the trial before the Paw
nee county jury. Foster. who is an
assistant under Hopkins at a salary of
$4,000 a year. was active in the trial
The case went to the jury Wednesday
night and this morning a verdict of
guilty in second degree murder was
returned against Albert Allen. 1t was
one of the most bitterly fought muir
der cases in western Kansas in recent
years.
Left Rufe King case.
Foster, who represented the de-
PENDANT while his chief represented the
state, left the RUFF King murder trial
at Lyndon to participate in the de-
Tense of Allen. Foster had been sent
by the attorney general to help con-
duct the King prosecution. Employed
as a private attorney by Allen, tho
Foster left the states case while
he aided in defense in the Kuttler
murder trial.
Joe Kuttler was alleged by the state
to have been killed by Albert Allen in
Greeley county in May, 1918. John H.
Allen, a brother, and William Thomp-
son. are also charged with the murder
and will be tried later A quarrel over
possession of a mule led to the killing.
A change of venue was taken from
Greeley county and the case tried in
Pawnee county
Following hung jury in one case,
preme court during the second trial.
on the issue involved the supreme
court refused to render a decision and
dismissed the appeal
Court Records on Case.
Briefs in the case before the SUI
preme court show Hopkins is chief
counsel for state, while Foster is of
counsel for the defendant. Docket
records in the, case listed as No. 22,-
900 also list the attorney general and
his assistant on opposite sides of the
murder case.
Many we'll knows attorneys appeared
of record in the case. Following At
torney General Hopkins as chief couu-
sell the states representation included
Clement L. Wilson, county attorney
OF Greeley county Roscoe Peterson,
county attorney of Pawnee county:
Carr w. Taylor of Hutchinson. state
senator-elect; and E. d. McKeever.
well known Topeka lawyer. For the
defendant counsel included: L. A.
Madison. of Dodge City, brother of
the late Congressman Ed Madison; E.
r. Thorpe, Lakin; Edgar Foster, Gar
den City, assistant attorney general;
Miss Nellie Cline and G. Polk Cline
of Larned. the young woman's father.
Miss Cline is representatives. elect
from Pawnee county. She aided in
argument of the case before the jury,
The Kuttler case is in many ways
similar to the blue sky cases where
criticism was directed against the at
torney generals office because an as
sistaut represented corporations seek
ing permits before the board of which
Hopkins Is a member.