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Show Iah I lij!k-ujmiuj.i, iia-uu .uiik.iiiim ii.iiiii-ijOTgCTf-"'"'j-j INVESTIGATION DISCLOSES BAD STATE OF AFFAIRS ; 1NTHE POLICE DEPARTMENT i '4 I ; At a special meeting of Ihc city commissioners called by Mayor T. S. . Browning this morning at 10 o'clock, ; ,1 Cilv Attorney W. II. Reeder. Jr.. and H i Assistant David L. Stine submitted af- " fidavlts of W. Bert Herrick, and Ben f Cohen, in the matter of their invesli- (: gation into the case of Ben Cohen, Hll -whom Uie newspapers reported as r. having been arrested on October 20, H'V for bringing into the city a suitcase H I' containing 21 pints of whisky. Accord- I jng to reports from the police station at the time Cohen paid bail of $100 and H ft the next morning failed to appear in H Municipal court before Judge G. S. H i Barker and forfeited the bail. H The aifldavlt of W. Bert Horrific. H which was read to I ho meeting by H i Itecorder W. J. Critchlow the facts as H jj staled in the Standard story last night Hj'j -were substantiated. Herrick testified that he saw Cohen coming out of the Hft depot on October 29, with a suitcase H 'T from which was dripping a ' liquid H .k which smelled like whiskey. Just then H'K he ran into Sergeant Kelliher' and he If, said to the officer: :. "That is pretty good stuff he, is (' packing in that suitcase. It is Ht pretty costly just now. That sult-H sult-H S case is full of booze and you had H'l hotter get away with it." Herrick says Kelliher took lhe H f suitcase out of Cohen's hand, put it H i into tho car, and drove away with It h? along Wall avenue and up Twenty-H Twenty-H C, fourth street. Herrick told some of H I his friends about It after and they Hi? suggested that he oujght to report to jfc Chief of Police T. E Browning, so he telephoned tho chief and then wont H 4 over to the police station and spoke of H the matter again. The chief told Her-P Her-P rick he had done the right thing in Hjj? reporting the matter. Thereupon, says Hjjf Herrick, Captain Mohlmann brought Hgl the rug out of the automobile and they Hft found that it smelled of whiskey. H Mohlmnn's Activity. H At 2 : 10 in the afternoon, according Hfft to Herrick, Captain Mohlman went Hc down to the depot and said, "We have investigated that matter and we have Htlf it all fixed so that wo can have tho Hfj arrest. It will not be Ben Cohen but Hil it will be another Cohn." Hfjj Mohlmann asked Herrick to go up 1 to the station and see the evidences of Htfj arrest, so after he had finished work Hjjf Herrick went to the police station and Hj saw the charge slip which was dated Hnj time 10:30 o'clock and giving the name Hi of Dan Cohn, occupation laborer, Hftj charge, having liquor in his posses- HLt sIon arrested by Sergeant Kelliher, fj bail $100. HM Cohen's affidavit was given in Hfc the office of City Attorney Recder, No. Htf! G20 David Eccles building, and there were present at the time the statement HIE vras m;ldc Mayor T. Samuel Bpowning, Hji! Assistant City Attorney D. L. Stine, and W. R. Skecn, the latter acting as counsel for Cohen. . j Protection From Kelliher. 1) In answer to questions asked by jj Reeder and Stine, Cohen confessed Hill that ten days before the arrest was Hm made he had made an understanding Hi; -with Sergeant Kelliher to bring some Htjf -whiskey Into the city of Ogden and Hfr that he understood it he would pay the Hl officer $26 he would be protected in this deal and other deals like it, so ac-cording ac-cording to testimony of Cohen, it was U) agreed that any time he went into Kj AVyoming and brought liquor into Og- H den ho was to let Sergeant Kelliher Kj know iv hen he would be back and tho officer would sec to it that nothing wl happened to him at the Ogden Union 1 Cohen was not ablt to make the trip at tho time he had contemplated but his wife wont away into Wyoming Bj to visit the children at Green River, Hj arid Rock Springs, and Sorgeant Kclli- H her agreed to sco to it that' if she had the whiskey when she came back he would see that she was met at the station and no harm come to her. Booze in Police Car. Hj Mr?. Cohen went away on October H; 28 and came back on the 29th bring- Hc ing with her 22 pints of whiskey in a' IS' suitcase. Kelliher was told by Cohen -when Mrs. Cohen would be arriving in I Ogden, and when Cohen went lo the ) depot to meet his wife he saw Kelliher Kelli-her there with the police car and after ho had got tho suitcase from the woman wom-an he wont up to the officer and they . put in in the back of the car, and the $ officer drove away. Mrs. Cohen walked 1 away home, and Cohen went to his I store through the Healy alley. About il 11 o'clock that morning, says Cohen, yj Kelliher came down to the store and told him that they would have lo go I U up to the house and get the suitcase) and at the house Kelliher informed 2 him that he was under arrest and that IE they would have to get Whiskey in the suitcase. Kelliher confessed to" Cohen, I says the latter, that, "Its too bad it P happened." I Chief Was "Wild." H When Cohen got to the police sta1- U tlon with Kelliher he round Chief r Browning and Captain Mohlmann "aw- Ik! lul wild" about the police car being E used by an officer to carry the suit- I case with whiskey in it. Then the chief m told Cohen he would need to put up K $100 ball, which he did after a matter I of an hour and a half. Cohen said the only question asked him at the de3k was as to his name and he said it was I "John Cohen," he as not asked any I other questions, he Cohen confesses in the statement -that he never had any conversations H or dealings with Kelliher about traf- I flc in liquor until this incident arose I When tho affidavits were read bo- fore tho meeting this morning thero H -wer present Mayor Browning, Coin- I jnissioners Flygare, Jones and City I Recorder Critchlow. City Attorney W. I H. Reeder, Jr., and his assistant David "L. Stine. Chief of Police T. "E. Brown - I ing, Captain Mohlman and a Standard I reporter. i-crauiiciiiiicc ai meeting. After tho hearing discussion became very animated on tho matter, Commissioner Commis-sioner Flygnre pointing out to tho attorneys at-torneys that they had done a very discourteous thing in investigating a Hl matter of this kind without first of all H ' bringing what facts they had before m the attention of Commissioner Miles B Li, Jones -who is commissioner of pub-H pub-H lie safety and to whose departments matters of this kind rightly belong. B Common Talk in Town. H Mayor Browning said that the whole R affair had become such a matter of 1 town talk that he was determined to B go into the matter down to the bottom EVJ as he would do with regard to anv-BH thing that he thought to be wrong In any one of tho departments of tho city of Ogden. He conceived it to be his duty as mayor to see that Uie matter mat-ter was investigated right away and that tho whole thing bo got through in the quickest possible time Commissioner Miles L. Jones heatedly heat-edly cnterod into tho discussion and read a paragraph attempting lo demonstrate dem-onstrate that the action of tho mayor in the matter was against the laws and ordinances of the state and tho city, that the only investigation that could legitimately be carried through was an investigation carried through by the Commissioner of Public Safety. What the Law Says. Attorney Reeder and Dnvid L. Stim-absolutely Stim-absolutely combat this statement saying say-ing that Section 20 of Chapter 2 of the prohibition law of Utah. 1917, reads as follows : "All sheriffs, deputy sheriffs. MAYORS, police judges, justices of the peace, constables, marshals, and peace officers, and all districi. county. CITY and TOWN ATTORNEYS, ATTOR-NEYS, and clerks of courts, shall diligently enforce the prdvislons of this act. "The act referred to being that Prohibiting the manufacture and I use of Intoxicating liquors, and regulating the sale and traffic therein." e And in the same chapter and section: sec-tion: "If any officer shall fall or refuse re-fuse to do 5r perform any duty required re-quired by this act lie shall be re-.moved re-.moved from office as heroin provided," pro-vided," and in section 31, "If the prosecuting attorney of any district, county, city or town shall be notified by any officer or other person, or shall have knowledge know-ledge of any violation of an provisions pro-visions of this act. it shall be his duty forthwith diligently to inquire in-quire into the facts of such violation." viola-tion." After very healed discussions in which the conversation of the commissioners, com-missioners, police, and attorneys got very far away from the subject immediately imme-diately needing their attention, the matter was brought before their notice no-tice again by a motion made by Commissioner Com-missioner Chris Flygare, and seconded by Miles L. Jones that the statements which had been read should be handed over lo the commissioner of public safety, Miles L. Jones. Jones Says He Is Probing. Commissioner Jones states that the investigation carried through by his department was begun on October 29. that it is not yet complete, that there are still matters which tho legal department de-partment did not deal with in their investigation and that when the evidence evi-dence is in shape it will be submitted to a public meeting' of the commissioners. commis-sioners. Commissioner Jones wished to be understood as opposed to the liquor traffic in any shape or form and that he thought every member of the city commission was so persuaded and that they were all doing their best to see that tho law was enforced but that he did not agree, could not agree with the way in which the mayor has carried car-ried this investigation through. Mayor Had Authority. Mayor T. S. Browning on the other hand is fully persuaded that he has authority, to enter into investigation through the legal department of the city into the concerns of any of tfip departments of the city's life; that tlu-violation tlu-violation of the liquor laws is so patently pat-ently obvious that it has become common com-mon town talk, and as he said when hn assumed ofilce: "If it were not for tho energies of the sheriff's office prohibition pro-hibition in Ogden would be a burlesque" burles-que" and because this state of things has continued he went his own way about the investigation which the facts demanded and in which he feels ho is supported by the common sense of all decent minded people and by tho laws of Utah. oo |