Imperial Valley press., 1933-10-03
WINS
ON RULING IN
LAND RIAL
CONTINUED From Page II

any outside influence reaching the
jurors In any manner. 1t was the
opinion of the prosecutor that the
trial would in ali probability be
concluded by the end of next week.
Harry Horton, one of the defense
attorneys, stated that 1t was i'm
material to the defense whether
this plan were followed out or the
jury allowed to return to their
homes each evening after the day IS
session. This matter was taken
under consideration by the court
with a decision to be given later.
Elmer Head, district attorney
and chief prosecutor, opened the
case by statement giving in out
line the plan he intends to follow
in the introduction of testimony
during the trial. He stated that he
expected to show that the Defend
ant, j. Labh Singh, moved onto the
land owned by Post and Robbins,
two of the defendants, in May, 1882,
and raised peas, cotton, milo maize
and alfalfa on this land. He ex-
pected further to show that these
crops were sold and that the de-
PENDANT J. Labh Singh received this
money as benefits from the land
which was in direct violation of
the state law.
The state then called its first
witness, Arthur Williams. Calipatria
regional superintendent for the I'M
perial Irrigation District, who took
the stand and outlined a map show
ing the location of the ranches upon
which the defendant j. Labh Singh
is alleged to have raised the crops
and where he is said to have re-
sided. This land is located about
four miles north and four miles
west of Calpatria, just west of the
Alamo river.
Objections Raised
Before the state could start ques-
tioning its witness, objections were
raised by defense counsel, asking
for the dismissal of the indictment
against the defendants, which OBJ
jections were overruled by the court.
The prosecution had asked but
one or two questions when another
objection was raised and this time
it resulted in postponement of
the case until this morning at
which time the court was to rule
on the matter.
The objection raised was to the
effect that so long as the indict-
ment charged the defendants with
conspiring to violate the alien land
law and not with the actual VIOLA
ton of that law, it was the duty of
the state to produce witnesses to
prove the fact of this alleged con-
spiracy before anything else and
not produce the actions by which
it is alleged the law was broken be-
fore evidence III the fact that the
defendants unlawfully had conspir-
ed to break the law.
When this objection was brought
before the court the jury was dis
missed for the day and the matter
rested there until a ruling could be
had relative to the procedure to be
followed by the prosecution in the
introduction of it's evidence. An
other matter brought to the atten-
ton of the court by the defense was
that all witnesses, whether for the
state or defense, should be exclud-
ed from the court room during tes-
timony by individual witnesses. This
was SO ruled by the court and when
Williams took the stand to give
his testimony the remaining wit
nesSes were requested to leave the
courtroom until Called by the bail
iff.
The secretary of state .-sued ex-
tradition papers for Mrs. L. E. Ell
lis, Mrs. A. L, f. Sampson and Miss
F.. A. Braun, Carson City, Nevada,
witnesses, and Harold Gillett. in
vestigator for che sheriff's office. is
expected to leave for Nevada with
the papers as soon as ne completes
his testimony in the case.