Evening star., 1944-07-16
laughIin Asks Court
To. Rule Judge Eicher
Holds Office Illegally
By CARTER BROOKE HOMES.

h0IdS UffIce Illegally
BY CARTER BROOKE JONES.
James j. Laughlin, spectacular
defense attorney in the sedition
trial, who was thrown out of the
case by Chief Justice Edward G..
Eicher after asking the House to
impeach the presiding Judge. retail
ated yesterday by filing In District
Court suit In which he charged
that the jurist was holding office
illegally by reason of residence out
side the District. The court was
asked to order the chief justice to
repay his salary plus punitive dam
ages to the United States Treasury,
. sum totaling $109 ,220.
Within an hour, Robert Noble,
one of Mr.. Laughlin's two clients in
the sedition case, demanded his
. freedom on a writ of habeas corpus.
Noble, who was eliminated from the
trial Thursday when the Govern
ment moved for q severance of his
case, thus tried to forestaIl his re-
turn to California to serve out q
f1ve-year sentence imposed for vio-
lating the State sedition law.
1t had been expected that he
would be started West tomorrow,
but Justice Jennings Bailey set the
habeas corpus hearing for August q,
making 1t necessary meanwhile to
hold him in District Jail.
Prosecution Completes Plans.
These out-of-court developments
occurred while the 3-month-old
trial was In week end recess, and
as various other side issues in the
big case simmered outside Justice
Eicher's courtroom, with the Court
of Appeals considering several
phases, of these collateral contro-
versies.
Chief Prosecutor o. John Rogge,
meanwhile, was completing plans to
present in the next few days what
the Government regards as some of
Its most damaging evidence against
the 26 defendants.
The prosecution, 1t was learned,
expects to turn aside temporarily
from the picture of the German
American Bund, which it has de-
picted through various witnesses,
and put on testimony of alleged
conversations among certain de-
PENDANTS in which they assertedly
plotted to enlist members of the
armed forces in a revolutionary
scheme The "A men and two
women on trial are charged with
conspiring to incite soldiers and
sailors to disloyalty and mutiny.
Luedtke Still on Stand.
Mr.. Rogge plans to put on this
direct evidence as soon as the testi-
mony OF the present witness is COM
pleted. He Is william Luedtke. for
mer national secretary Of the Bund.
He may be on the stand most of
the week
Mr.. Laughhn's suit against JUS
tice Eicher is brought for the United
States on relation of the attorney.
The judges home is in Alexandria,
Va, and Mr.. Laughlin cites a sec
ton of the United States Code pro-
viding that every Federal District
Judge shall reside in the district or
districts for which he Is appointed"
Any Judge violating this provision,
says the code, shall be deemed
guilty of a high misdemea nor"
Jurisdiction of the District Court
does not extend beyond the Dis
trict Of Columbia, the complaint
points out.
The judge, Mr.. Laughlin recites,
has obtained $25.610 in salary since
he took Office February 3. 1912, and
the rest of the money which the at
torney asks the court to order paid
into the Treasury is for double the
amount in damages and for other
monetary penalties provided for
fraudulent and fictitious" claims
on the Government.
Fined Twice for Contempt.
Mr.. Laughlin. who had been fined
twice for contempt of court during
the long trial. charged in the i'm
parchment petition which he filed
with the Speaker of the House that
Justice Eicher had used his office
"for political purposes and had
been arbitrary and unfair in his rul-
ings, denying the defendants their
constitutional rights.
The attorney took his custer
from the case to the Court of Ap-
peals, but 1t refused. by a 2-to-2 de-
cision. to hear his petition for a
writ of mandamus requiring Justice
Eicher to reinstate him. Mr.. Laugh
lin has pending a motion for re-
consideration in which he asks that
the fifth member of the appellate
bench. Justice Justin Miller, who
Is out of town, be called on to cast
q deciding vote on the issue.
Meanwhile, Eugene N. Sanctuary,
q defendant, VINO was deprived OF
his trial counsel when Henry H.
Klein, New York attorney, quit the
trial in a huff July S, asked the
Court Of Appeals to require Justice
Eicher to allow him to retain Mr..
Laughljn, who was recorded for
mally as this defendants local at
torney. Justire Eicher has cited Mr..
Klein to appear Friday and show
cause why he should not be ad-
judged in contempt for deserting
the trial without permission of the
court.
Given Temporary Counsel.
Sanctuary has been assigned tenn
porary counsel from day to day
from among other defense attorneys.
Justice Eicher Is expected, when the
trial Is resumed at 10 am. tomor-
row, to appoint permanent counsel
for the 75-year-old retired Army
colonel, unless Sanctuary mean
while should engage an attorney.
With Noble and two other de-
PENDANTS dropped from the trial on
Government motions for severance
late last week, the number of de-
PENDANTS has dwindled to 26. There
were 80 when the trial started April
II, but one. 80-year-old Elmer j.
Garner. died early in the trial.
Noble was put out of the case