OCR Text |
Show JONES SHOULD NOT ESCAPE. Unless a new complaint issues from the county attorney's office, Jones, the thief of , malodorous mal-odorous bounty fraud fame, will be at liberty again within the next few days. jQnes.is, by h: . own confession, made but a few days ago, a felon, fel-on, and it would be a very fitting tribute to law and order if his tenure in some bastile were indefinitely in-definitely prolonged. It is not likely that the county attorney's office of-fice would willingly issue a complaint against Jones, although they are fully cognizant of the fact that he is guilty of perjury and merits con- yiction. The county attorney's office unwisely agreed that if he would make a full confession of his dark complicity in the bounty frauds, he should not be convicted of any additional criminal crimi-nal exposure arising out of the. trial upon the original charge. This does not, however, in the least deter some other county or city official from swearing to a complaint in the county attorney's office on the perjury charge. The crime of perjury can easily be established against Jones. In three instances, at least, the records of the court and. of the county clerk's office are sufficient to convict the notorious swindler. swin-dler. In three instances he took an oath in the county clerk's office that he had himself within sixty days, and in the state of Utah, killed the animals whose hides he had produced for bounty. Later, he admitted in court that what he had sworn to in the clerk's office was false. . The statutes relating to perjury clearly cover the case of Jones, and if convicted, the rascal could be retained in the state prison for at least three years, as the penalty for this species of felony is fixed at from one to ten years. The case demands official attention. Jones is i an ancient and time worn criminal, who had lan guished in prison many times before he invaded Utah. If the recent felonious offense of this criminal is permitted to go by without criminal procedure being inaugurated, it wolud be shameful. shame-ful. The prosecution in the bounty fraud case has been a series of blunders. Three men, the chief i offenders, have been permitted to go with either nominal or no punishment in a frenzied effort to convict Davies, who, in reality, could have been convicted on the records in the county clerk's office. Roberts, one of the chief conspirators, after scoffing at the prosecution and vaunting his crimes, walked jauntily down to the station and took a train for California. Outside of Jones, who is about to be released, unless there is official of-ficial intervention, the only souvenir of which the county attorney's office can boast, is the be-jailed be-jailed and shivering figure of the little Welchman Davies, whose first criminal offense was committed com-mitted at the instigation of these experienced culprits. |