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Show DECISION GIVEN IN SW EASES Judge Diehl Holds That Police Chief's Trap Is Not Bar o Prosecution. REVERSES DECISION OP TWO YEARS AGO Also. Holds Thai Saloon Proprietor Pro-prietor Is Not Responsible for Bartender's Acts. Judge Diehl. of the police court, rendered ren-dered a decision in tho saloon cases Monday morning. Ho "held that the accused saloonkeeper saloon-keeper cannot set up us a good defense that the chief of police set a trap to catch saloons violating the Inw, that ho secures tho violations through emissaries emis-saries sent out for that purpose and supplied sup-plied by tho city with money to obtain illegal sales of liquor. Tho court further hrJd that the proprietor pro-prietor of the saloon is not liable for the criminal acts of his bartender or agent. If tho bartender sells licuor on Sunday ho alone is guilty of violating vio-lating the Sunday closing Inw and tho proprietor is not amenable unless he is a direct party to the illegal transaction. transac-tion. Thr cases had been hanging fire, since last May. At that time thirty-two saloon sa-loon mnn nnd bartenders were arrested and charged wjth violating tho Sunday closing ordinance. As the issues were the same iu all I he cases only two. those of Michael Albino, proprietor of the Orpht'um saloon on South State street, nnd his bartender, P. S. Nelson, wcro hoard. Stubbornly Contested. The cases wore stubbornly contested, a formidable legal arra3' composed of Judge A. J. Weber. Soren A. Chris-tenson, Chris-tenson, Judge S. P. Thurman, S. P. Armstrong Arm-strong and E. A- Wedgwood, appearing for the defendants while the cit3' was represented by Assistant City Attorneys P. J. Daly a'nd Edgar A. Rogers. Albino's attorneys moved for a dismissal dis-missal of tho caso against him on the ground thnt if a crime had been committed com-mitted ho was not a party to it, it being be-ing shown by tho prosecution's tcsti-moin- thnt the alleged illegal sale of liquor was made by his bartender, and for the dismissal of the ense against tho latter on the ground thnt as the city furnished the money with which the alleged illegal sale was obtained it had induced the alleged crime and was particeps criminis to it nnd therefore could not consistently ask for a conviction. con-viction. Assistant City Attorney Dal- contended con-tended that tho case was a civil suit to recover a fine or its equivalent for a violation of the Sunday closing ordinance ordin-ance and not n criminal action, which would make the employer liable for the acts of his employees, but tho court hoim otherwise and granjod the motion lo discharge Albino upon tho defonso's showing that he was not a party to or cognizant of the bartender's alleged illegal il-legal sale of liquor. Nelson Case Sticks. The motion to dismiss the case ngaiust Nelson wns denied, however, and in this tho court reversed itself, one of tho grounds for the defense's motion for dismissal being that the city hnd inducod tho alleged violation and was thereforo a party to it and bnrrod from asking for a conviction. Two years ago Judge Diehl held a saloon sa-loon man charged with selling liquor on Sunday not. guilty and discharged him because it wns shown that tho city had induced the offense, and wns therefore there-fore a party to it, in the opinion of tho court. Judge Diehl said when asked why he had reversed his former decision in this respect that the questions involved were purely matters of law and intimated that his first decision had beon erroneous. erron-eous. "I am not so stubborn that I cannot change my opinion if I have reason rea-son to believe that I was mistaken," he said. The next step in tho cases will be the submitting of evidence by tho defendants. defend-ants. No timo has been set for tho other hearings. In view of the far-reaching far-reaching decision that tho employer is not liable for tho criminal act of his employee it is not likely that there will bo much to several of tho cases against the saloonkeepers. |