, 1922-08-10
court
TANNED MONDAY
INTENSE LOCAL INTEREST DISPLAYED
In SENSATIONAL ASSAULT and
BATTERY HEARING.

Peace Dunlap, IN the CITY nail, WAS
packed to capacity Monday, with the
Standing Room Only sign very much
in evidence. The case, or rather
cases, before the court for hearing
possessed several unique points of
interest, aside from the fact that
both were related rather closely to
he railroad strike now in effect, al
though the controversy between the
5hopmen and the railroad was not
directly an issue in either.
Very rarely indeed do two u
actions dDve-tail together 5 70 closely
that the same Identical testimony Is
used, with the same Justice hearing
both cases and the same two parties
acting as defendant and prosecuting
witness with their positions reversed.
Added to this was the strange fact
that Acting County Attorney Andrew
McMicken was compelled by his posi-
ton to prosecute both cases, thus
virtually defending a man in one in
stance that he had a few moments
before been denouncing in un-
measured terms.
The story has excited a great deal
Of local interest and may be told
substantially as follows. and need not
be repeated, as the scene is changed
and the prosecuting witness in the
first action becomes the defendant in
the second:
On the evening of August 4, last
Friday, about the time of the arrival
of the train from the east, Mr.. Lich-
! enstein, proprietor Of a pool room
and ice cream saloon, dispatched his
little boy with the latter's express"
wagon to the depot to get a freezer
of ice cream, which vas due on train
No. 3. He also delegated Bert B.
Coffee to go along and place the
heavy container on the little wagon.
While passing under the archway at
the depot the boy was stopped by
the Union Pacifoc guard, Charles
Williams, and told that he must not
go on to the platform with his wagon
while a train was in the depot. Coffee
in the meantime had gone on ahead
and made arrangements with the ex-
press agent, Fred Wing to take i'm
mediate possession Of the p%erishable
shipment, and not knowing that the
boy had been stopped by an officer,
called to the boy to come on with his
wagon
The freezer was duly loaded into
the boys wagon and the start made
for town. While passing through
the archway Coffee alleged in his
complaint that Williams jabbed him
in the back with a sawed-off billiard
cue which the latter carries as a cane
or billy and "called him down" for
his action in calling the boy to the
platform after he had been stopped
by the officer, Here the only dis
crepancy in the entire testimony of
defendant. complaining witness and
several disinterested witnesses crept
TN nra olfhnnnh anita in, ~ a Z orfa1
much was made of it. The U. P. Of
ficer claims that he merely touched
Coffee with the cane to attract his
attention. Coffee claimed that he
was "poked" several times by the
billiard cue.
At any rate, while passing through
the depot archway to Front street,
Coffee stopped and asked angrily
why h prod was being used and
why he was being hit with It. The
officer. according to compliments
testimony, replied that he had not
hit Coffee. The accusation and de-
NAL we're banded back and forth un-
til finally the officer, Williams, said.
You're a damn liar" A moment
later, according to all witnesses, Cof-
fee countered with: you, too, are a
liar"
Then, according to Coffee, and sew
eral witnesses, williams struck him
ON the temple with the sawed-off
cue, Telling him to the ground. say
ing, "Now have hit you" The Of
ficer admitted that he made . hasty
departure for another part Of the de-
pot grounds and Coffee was picked
up In q dazed condition by friends.
When Williams was put ON the
stand In his own defense he corrob-
GRATED in detail the testimony of the
prosecution, with the exception that
he insisted that he only poked Coffee
once. He maintained that he stopped
the boy from going on to the depot
platform in accordance with instruc-
tions from his superIors. When
asked IL he had struck Coffee with
his billy the defendant admitted that
he had tapped him on the head
fell, he replied that he sort Of top
pied over onto the ground" VIII
liams pleaded In extenuation Of the
assault that Coffee was talking loud
and e~ndeavoring to create q disturb
ance and that he had stopped the
Lichenstein boy for the latter's own
safety. and as he had been instr ucted
to do in like cases.
Agent Wing of the express COM
pany was placed on the stand and
said that It had been customary to-
allow Ice cream which came in on
the evening train to be taken direct
from the truck on the platform rath-
er than through the Front street en-
trance to the building and that no
receiver of this commodity had been
notified to discontinue the practice
during the tense situation which
| now prevails at the depot, He satd