Show CORONERtS JURY CENSURES CITY I Inquest In Case of Little Ernest Johnson Who Was Drowned in a Flume on L Street The verdict of a Coroners jury at I the Inquest Into the death of Ernest Johnson the child who was drowned In I I a flume near the corner of Third and L streets Thursday night fixed the responsibility re-sponsibility of the childs death upon the city and Its employees yesterday I The inquest was held before Judge Kroeger and at its conclusion Jurors J T Lynch B H Young and Thomas S Fowler returned a verdict as follows fol-lows Ve found that the child fell Into the ditch at the mouth of the flume and was quickly drawn In by the force of the current the water being at the time from seven to eight Inches deep The jury Is of the opinion that the r death of this child was caused by inexcusable In-excusable negligence on the part of the I city and Its employees as we learned l I from the testimony of a > number of witnesses brought before us that the officers In the Irrigation department of the city have been cognizant of its danjgerou scharacter for years and yet allowed it to r maln uncovered and Inn In-n dangerous condition I The fiist witness examined at the inquest In-quest was E J Bench owner of the property where the parents of the dead child reside Mr Bench testified that he had during past administrations consulted the walermasters as to the I danger of the ditch and had suggested that measures of precaution be taken I On one occasion he said he had gotten up a petition to the City Council to have action taken In the matter but the petition was not accepted as it did not bear a sufficient number of names For fifteen years past he said the ditch had been a menace to small children chil-dren The evidence of W II Bywater also a resident of the vicinity went to substantiate that offered by Mr Bench Deputy I Watermasler John Axton said that he realized the danger of the place but that the portion of the flume belonging to the city was clear and that the crosspieces in the flume on the Bench propert were in a way responsible John Wersley and James Johnson employees under Mr Axton testified that they had warned residents of the neighborhood to keep their children away from the flume However when questioned the witnesses said that the parents of the dead child had not been warned Councilman George Canning chairman chair-man of the Committee on Irrigation when placed on the stand testified that his attention had not been called to the condition of the flume Ills evidence evi-dence closed the examination of witnesses wit-nesses and the Jury then retired to return re-turn within a few minutes with their verdict Tho father of the unfortunate little fellow who wao drowned said after the inquest that he had not definitely decided whether or not he would file a damage suit against the city although al-though he said that he may take some such action |