Evening star., 1924-09-04
D. c. JUDGES SCOUT
HAYNES CRITICISM
Schultz and Mcmahon Will
ing to Stand on Dry
Case Records.

Both Judge Gus A. Schultz and
Judge John J.. Mcmahon. presiding
magistrates of the Police Court, an
Swering Prohibition Commissioner
Haynes insinuation that liquor law
lcssness in Washington is due in
some measure to their failure to i'm
pose sufficiently severe penalties upon
offenders. declared today that they
are content to stand upon the official
records of their courts.
"Personally, ! think prohibition
conditions in Washington are stead
ily improving" said Judge Schultz.
Il think the enforcement officers have
done excellent work. AS regards
penalties imposed upon offenders who
are brought before me. | have moth
ing to say except that ! am quite
willing to stand upon the official rec
ords of this court"
Judge Schultz at present preSideS
in the United States branch of Police
Court, while Judge Mcmahon dis
penses justice in the District of CO.
lumbia branch When pressed for a
more detailed reply to the prohibition
commissioners criticism. he first con-
suited Judge Mcmahon and later de-
clared that both he and the magiS-
trate in the local branch preferred to
rest upon his first decision.
Thomas T.. Lodge, Assistant Dis
trict attorney in charge of prohi BIZ
ton prosecutions, had more to say,
however. He denied that bootleggers
enjoy "eNtra-legal forms of license"
by being permitted to post nominal
collateral when arrested and then au-
tomatically forfeit that impost by
failing to answer their names in
court when their cases are called
There is only one class that is per-
mitted to post collateral" Mr.. Lodge
declsred They are persons who are
arrested for intoXication aud, upon
being searched at the station house.
are found to have a small quantity
of liquor upon them. OF course, they
/ have violated the law prohibiting
transportation Of intoxicants and
such charge is added to that of
drunkenness.
"Certainly We cannot class those
people as bootleggerS; we would not
have leg 10 stand on before a jury.
Such prisoners may post collateral
ranging from $40 to SIS: others are
required to give bond ranging from
$1,000 up | think there have been
about six cases where prisoners under
bond We're permitted to later change
to collateral. They were all persons
accused of having hard cider and it
is simply impossible to find jury
that Will convict man on such d
tndTSc.
Mr. Lodge said that persons ac-
cuSed of violating the prohi bition
laws come in at an average rate of
about lJ day. There are still 500
cases to be heard: hundreds more
have been disposed OF, some fined and
some sent to occoquan, according to
the seriousness of the accusation and
the number of times they have been
arrested. He declared his office is
using every energy it has to keep the
records clear possible.
Officials of the Police Court point ed
out that Mr.. Haynes criticism of that
tribunal is unfair because the en-
forcement law itself prevents the
presiding magistrates from imposing
jail sentences in the vast majority of
cases that are first offenses. Then,
when the second offender comes back,
he may be liza bic to a sentence of more
than a year and the case automatical-
~ goes to a higher court because Po-
lice Court is not permitted to handle
charges where sentences exceeded Il
year in prison might he imposed.