An Exciting Trial

Last week the city marshal saw a man )y the name of Koon f all uponthe sidawalk at the northeast corner of the court house square. The marshal at once arrested the fellow asa drunkand escorted him to the wretched pen constructed in one corner of the engine louse and used as a city lock-up. It aeing too late to go before Justice Pond that day, the prisoner was left in the aforesaid pen to spend the night upon a bare board and without any covering. It was only down about zero and the miserable drunk had had no supper and wanted a drink of water, but that made no difference. It turned out a little later that the prisonor was not the common bum he had been taken for and he kicked at the idea of spending the night sleeping, hungry and thirsty and without cover, on the soft side of abare plank over the excrement receptacle used by a score of drunks who had been lodged in the same pen before him. By vigorous banging upon the door, he succesded in attracting the attention of some citizens to whom he made known his identity. Among other tbings he proved to be ,an oddfellow and the memben of this order did not propose to see one of their brothers kept in Buch a place over night, before he waa proven guilty of any crime. It is putting it very mildly to say that the members of this order were indignaat when they found out the true status of the affair and a number of them demanded of the marshal that the prisoner be giren his liberty as they would agree to become responsible for his appearance before a justice next morning. Upon suchassurance Mr. Koon was given his liberty. He did not at once skip. the tovvn- must have been too drunk, looking at it from the ofticer's stand-point. The fact is he was sober enough to attend a lodge meeting immediately after having been given his liberty. At the trial next day it developed that the defendant was in the city as an expert boiler inspector sent here by an insurance company to meet the company's agent to examine certain risks. It was while waiting for the agent to put in an appearance that Mr. Koon, as he admits, took one glass of beer just after dinner, and an other along about four o'clock, in the afternoon, and then was foolhardy enough to venture out without rubbers upon his shoes, and slipped down upon one of Ann Arbor's icy side-walks. The evidence against Mr. Koon, as adduoed at the trial was the opinión of the marshal and two other officers who saw him sometime after he wes arrested, that the defendant was drunk and algo the testimony of one, N. D. Corbin, who from a distance saw the fellow try to turn a doublé summersault upon the polished walk, and who kneic,thereíove, that he was intoxicated. The city attorney thought this evidenee in abundance to convict the fellow and labored long and assiduously to compass that end. A jury, however, had been demanded. It consisted of Ben Watts. Jim Harkins, Geo. Goodrich, Art Sweet, Vet. Armstrong and Geo. Miller, and it took them just about thirty seeonds to cast a unanimous vote that the fellow was not necessarily drunk, simply because he had taken a "header" upon one of the glassy pavements that abound all over the city. Ai one of the jurymen expressed it.Wo thought that the evidence of a number of reputable citizens who had talked with the defendant, either a few minutes before his arrest or within a half hour afterwards, was sufticient proof that the man was perfectly sober, and that the officers and Mr. Corbin were looking for, rathor than seeing, drunken men. But we do not wish to seem to be critici, sing an officer for performing what he believes to be his duty. We do want to warn everybody in the city, even the most dignitied that any one is liable to arrest aud therefore itseemsnecessary that all should at once have heavy spurs fastened into their boot solos lest, when they venture out, the grip of their pedal phalanges upon the glassy hummocks may not be equal to 'the dangers that are sure to beset them during the present weather that is being sent out from Washington and the kind of pavements that result therefrom. We wish at all times to sustain the offices of the law in doing their plain duty and hope, therefore, that sober citizens will manage to keep their under penning firmly anchored beneath them as we should dislike very much to be obliged to second the efforts of any officer in placing such people in the famous city lockup simply beeause some of our pavements which at all times seem "greased for the occasion" should prove to much for their equilbrum. [The above is inaerted at the urgent request of a large number of respectable citizens who are firmly convinced that the Marshall made amistake in arresting Mr. Koon, and made his mistake norse by not dropping the matter when ho realized the true state of affairs. Wiahing to give both sides an equal show, we publish below a communication from the marshall forth liis Persion of the matter, he having boon sbown the above article in advanco. - FA . ] [To the Editor of The Ueüistkh. An article in your paper under the title of "An exiting trial" contains so many highly colored ïnisstatements and falsehood8 as to demand a alight card of explanation. While it contains insinuations against the judgementand sincerity of the ofï"r cera of this city, in tbe exercise of their official duties, it also bears heavily upon the character of one of the most tiighly esteemed fraternal organizations of the city, and deserves the condemnation of all good citizens. The pólice officers of the city meet with sufficient opposition from wilful violators of the laws, it would seem, without being held up public contumely while attempting to enforce the laws. Now the evidence on the part of the city as produced before the jury was that of four pólice oflicers who had seen the man charged with having been intoxicated on the street, at the same time of the arrest and immediately afterwards and their evidence was positive and direct to the point that the man Koon was intoxicated. The members of the fraternal order who interviewed the man in jail did not seo him until after the lapse of about an houtand a half from his arrest. When their request was made to have the man turned over to them, he was immediately surrendered, but the statement that he was sufficiently sobered up to attend a meeting of the Oddfellows "immediately after having been giving his liberty" must be statnped as unqualifiedly false. Mr. Editor, if the statement in the article referred to that you "do not wish to seem to be criticislng an olïicer for performing what he believes to be his duty" is, as it appears, an expression of your editorial desire, it strikes me that you naight exercisesome judgement in regard to the matter published as facts in your paper. The slightest investigation would satisfy a being that the article, contains no less than a dozen misrepresentations and false statements. Itcannot be possible tbat you believe that the effects of such an article as the one referred to will be to diminish open exhibitions of drunkeness upon the streets of our fair city, not to increase the effiiciency of our pólice forcé. Can it be possible that you would prefer to be confronted by such exhibitions of drunkeness that the columns of your paper might be illuminated with lurid articles on the grass immorality and open violation of laws existing in our college town. Yours respectfully, City Marshall.