Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1921-07-13
POLITICS AGAIN
INJECT led INTO
MURDER TRIAL
Character Witnesses Placed
on Stand in Bowen MUIR
der Case Today.
Herald Special service.)

Hetttnger. N. D.; July 13.-lntec-
ton OF politics into the trial testimony
for the first time, and persisted In By
the special prosecutors for the state,
ness told him he had ito lie like
hell" at the preliminary examination,
and limitation OF character witnesses
to nine by Judge Berry were high
lights yesterday in the trial Of D. r.
Ofley for the murder OF M. K. Bowen
in July, 1919. Y. 4
Sam Fisher, a farmer. was on the
the slain man as "quarreison1e,
bad man." On cross-exanination At
torney L. A: Simpson, chief proeecu-
tor and representative of Attorney
General William Lemke asked: Are
you q Nonpatrisan or an independ-
ent ?"
Attorney J. F. Sullivan of the de-
tense objected and the objections
were sustained. Four more character
utation OF Bowen. All told Of tho
general belief that he was a danger
Gus man." Under cross-exanination
one witness made the case stronger
by developing the fact that many
people had trouble with the deceased.
Then Simpson launched into political
questions Most of the objections
were sustained, but some political col
or was allowed to go into the records
by the Judge.
Attorney Sullivan then in open
court told Simpson,: go ahead and
put in your political stuff; we'll; quit
objecting, and when we get through
we will prove that politics had moth
ing to do with the killing
Had Much Trouble.
Guy Lowell. Beach. was placed on
the stand by the defense. He declared
Bowen had trouble with about every
body in the community" and The was
always Dragging about what he was
going to do to somebody
o. Blue said that two or three
weeks before the shooting he saw M.
K. Bowen in Ollie, Mont, and Bowen
told him he would get Ofley by the
law within two weeks and il he
couldn't get him by law he would get
him with a gun"
The court stopped the defence aft
er the ninth character witness de-
claring enough evidence had been. in
| troduced for the purposes of the rec
ord. Judge Berry also issued an Or
der limiting the threats made by
Bowen to those communicated to or.
. ley and the other defendants.
| Harry L. Heath of Beach testified
! that after the preliminary hearing.
i Hans Boegli, hired man at the Bowen
farm, came to him on business, rela-
| tive to proving up his homestead. Ac-
j. cording to Heath, eBoegii told him: II
had to lie like help at the preliminary
examination. but I've gotten 1t from
them now and can tell a differ ent
story" Boegli has been almost con-
stantly with Mrs. Bowen and Seaman
Smith. special investigator. originally
1appointed by Governor Frazier, dur
ing the progress of the trial at Het-
i finger. On cross-examination Heath
added more facts to his story Boegli's
| veracity further was questioned in e1-
animation Of l.. Stockwell, sheriff Of
! Golden Valley county. who was at the
Bowen home the night of the tragedy.
Politics Caused Fight.
| That the burden of testimony has
been SO overwhelmingly in favor Of
! the defense that an acquittal looks
SO certain that thesrepresentatives OF
the state Nonpartisan league admin
! istrauon injected politics into the trial
3 in an effort to win a disagreement,
is the opinion versed by several men
who have been watching the progress
of the trial.
| Witnesses called by the defense
were about evenly divided between
leaguers and Independents at the time
of the shooting. Now practically all
are opposed to the league as a result
of the making of political capital Of
the Bowen murder by the state ad-
ministration.