Show AN ANOMALOUS RULING THIS morning in the case of rodney C badger indicted tor for unlawful cohabitation judge zane delivered a most anomalous r stiling tile the point which caused it to be made v was vas raised by the defense it was held by that side of the case that the plural wife of the defendant had not resided in the third judicial district during any portion of the time covered by the indictment which charged that the of sense had been committed within the district the court ruled in substance that ahem a man had a legal wife living in one district and lived with her and a plural wife e in fa another and had bad not associated with the latter in the same district in which the legal wife resided there should be conviction if there v as association the distri the case was complete it is presumed teat the hypothesis of this position is that an offense commenced in one district and consummated in another could be prosecuted in ia either but such could not be the case in this instance as the defendant was guilty of no element of crime un der ane law in living with his legal wife if there was a breach of the law at all it must musi have been in the district where the plural wife resided aided rp the ruling was in direct conflict with the indictment which charges the commission of the offense within the third district from the arguments 1 ments or claims of the prosecution it would appear that mr clarke holds the theory that the offense of unlawful cohabitation can be proved without evidence of actual association or in other words that the status is is criminal this would carry the legal meaning of the word cohabitation so far outside of its ordinary lingual scope that it would have no connection with its and commonly understood def definition lattion the supreme court of the united states in the election cases against the united states commission stated stated that the polygamous status is not cli criminal minal the same tribunal in the snow case also incidentally stated that cohabitation was a d dwelling w elling together as husband and wife |