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Show RANCHER NAMED BY DYING GIRL TD FACE TRIAL f City Judge Holds Evidence Sufficient to Bind Meek Over ATTORNEYS SCOLDED Spectators Also Come in for Criticism From Magistrate The binding over for trial to the distnet court of Otto Mfek on the charge of adultery arising out of the dying declaration of Helen Bass, suicide, sui-cide, the explanation of City Judge D. R Roberts for his admission as evidence of the dying declaration and the scathing rebuke during his sum-1 mutton of the case of the attorn ays on b'-th sides as well as the spectators specta-tors these were the outstanding foa-tures foa-tures of the preliminary hearing which closed Wednesday afternoon in the olty court. MccR was held under $3,000 ball. The mphatic rebuke of the attorneys attor-neys came as a distinct shock and City Judge Roberts made ir plain thai ho was referring to Incidents of the I hearing that occurred on Monday and Tuesday. Ml I k SEEMS STARTLED. There was no demonstration follow- ing his announcement that he would bind Moek o'ver. The defendant appeared lo be start- 1 led tor a few moments but recovered hlS composure and at the conclusion i of the hearing left the court room1 I with his attorneys. Promptly at t o'clock. George Hair ' verson, of counsel for the defense, j , began his argument for the dismissal I Of the complaint on the grounds thav' no specific time nor place hud been i fixed for the commission of the crlnio and further that there had been no corroborative evidence such as the law-demanded law-demanded In support of the statements ' of an accomplice. I Ho reiterated constantly throughout his argument that Helen Buss, do-spite do-spite the fact that she was unmar-! unmar-! rltd. was an accomplice and that as such her testimony In the dying declaration dec-laration wus worthless us fur as conviction con-viction was com erned unless it was corroborated with testimony of such strength and weight that it tended to fix the. blame for the crime on the person charged. In support of his contention he read 1 from numerous Utah coses dealing with the crime of adultery and was , followed closely by the spectators. STATE REP DBS. I In reply County Attorney David J.I Wilson bejean by stating that he was 'nut at all In agreement with the counsel coun-sel for The defense relative to Helen ! Basi being an ai . ompll. . He stated that tho teal as to whether wheth-er a person wus un accomplice In 't Time was If that person under the law could b changed with and prose- j cuted for the crime. He contended j that under ii"- Utah statutes reading I from them in support of his argument, argu-ment, an unmarried woman could not ; be prosecuted for the crime of adul- tery and h argued tuui the statute so stated In unquestioned terms. In support of the test he read ex- , traits from various Utah case.-, stating i that the law regarded an unmarried woman as the victim and not the ac- . ! complice in such cases. Taking up the question of corrobor-atlve corrobor-atlve evidence he said that while It J w-as not needed because of the fact I that the young woman was not ,m accomplice yet If It were needed t.rier-wan t.rier-wan sufficient evidence to connect the defendant with tho crime. 1 1 STIMONY IU: EWEp He tneu reviewed the testimony call-lng call-lng attention to that of Mrs Sadie, i Boss, mother of Helen Hasa. showing ' that Meek had been keeping company' with Helen Bass for months; thai clandestine meetings had been fre- qucnt in the automobile owned by Meek; that the parents had objected' t... the young woman keeping company ! ! with Meek, that prior to her suicide she had been corresponding with Meek . and had been making preparations to j marry' him when he secured his dl- . VorOe from bis present wife. All of these circumstances, he ar- j fued, were direct In fixing the connection con-nection of Meek with tho commission of the crime as alleged In the complaint com-plaint and as stated In the dying declaration dec-laration In closing he appealed to the court to bind the defendant over to the district dis-trict court that ho might stand trial and be Judged by a Jury of his peers. HENDERSON U.l I S H H Henderson then took up tho closing argument for the defense on the motion to dismiss the complaint. He argued that the question of an ar- j complice was not an open one, that It had been decided time and time again j (Continued on Page Two) DISTRICT COURT GETS MEEK CASE Magistrate Holds Evidence Sufficient to Bind Rancher Over (Continued from Page One) by the supreme court rtnd that the question of corroboration had SlBu been decided. Ho th' n called the attention of th court to the law n numerous Utah cases in support of his contention He insisted that Helen Bass, whose memory mem-ory he said he did not lsh to disparage, dis-parage, was an accomplice anil that her testimony In her dying declaration declara-tion should be viewed as that of ai accomplice. The state and the defense then rested rest-ed and submitted the ease without further fur-ther argument following which Olty Judge D. R. Roberts began his summary sum-mary of the evident e ii" stated that the oomplaint charged charg-ed Otto Mnok with the crime of adultery adul-tery With one, Helen Bass, while tho defendant was a married man. He took up the question of the motion to dlsinlMM on the groun.!-' that the dying declaration had been Improperly admitted; ad-mitted; second, on the grounds of the corroborative testimony and. third, that the complaint was insufficient M.I KS PROBABLE CAUSE Tho duty of tho court, City Judge Roberts said, was to protect the innocent in-nocent and In doing so to keep Within the law and the fa. tS, He then said that the case was not a trial In tho usual sense of the word but was a preliminary hearing and that there were but two matters for the court to determine, the first being be-ing whether an offense had been om-mltted om-mltted and. second, whether ther. WSS evidence sufficient to raise the probability prob-ability that the defendant had been Implicated in the commission of tfte offense. The test In such cases I104 said was whether the preliminary hearing developed de-veloped sufficient facts to warrant and Justify the case being tried by a Jury which would determine the facts in tho case Ho said that the court had the testimony tes-timony of tho girl In hrr dying hours when she know that her end was near and while Ph was in a rational frame of mind so that she Ln v. what she was talking about, Judgo Roberts then stated his reason rea-son for allowing the dying declaration to be admitted In such cases. He reviewed re-viewed the rule that dying declarations declara-tions arc only admitted In homicide ca-ses where tho defendant Is charged with being implicated in the homicide Taking up the question of the testimony tes-timony tho court said that there wan testimony that Helen Bass had met with the defendant numerous times in his automobile in North Ogden canyon can-yon to which objection had been made that the time was not specified nor tho place sufficiently. MERELY PRELIMINARY. He again called attention to the case bolng a preliminary hearing anil not a trial and said that undoubt- diy those questions would be settled In thp trial of tho case. City Judge Roberts said that he was not entirely convinced by the argument! argu-ment! of tho prosecution that the girl was not an accomplice and then taking up the question of corroboration corrobora-tion he reviewed the testimony of Dr W. E. Whalen to tho effect that a post-mortem examination showed the girl to bo pregnant for between two and three months which was corroborative corrob-orative of her testimony and sufficient evidence that the offense had been committed. He then proceeded to review tho testimony of the other witnesses stating stat-ing that of the Bister was taftuffich nt; that of Duncan Stewart was of llttlo force; that of Motorcycle Officer V. E. Lelser was corroborative of th ownership of automobiles by Otto Meek, but that that of tho mother was important and corroborative FRIENDSHIP SHOWN. It showed, he said, that the daugh-Iter daugh-Iter was much in the company ol He It, that thoro had been no man to hr Uko Meek, that she had been keeping company with no other men! that thc-y had corrcBpondol , that the glrJ was making preparations to be married mar-ried to Meek; that she had been going (out with him frequently; that tiir mother had tried to break up the relationship re-lationship and that tno girl had re 1 fused to give up the man. The court said that there was prob-jable prob-jable cause to connect the defendant I with the crime and that he would therefore bind the defendant over to the district court for trial. JUDGE PLATS LAWYERS Judge Roberts then took up tho question of the acts of the attorneys 'on both sides during the progress of ;the preliminary hearing He said that the attorneys on both sloes had placed plac-ed the court in nn embarrassing po-Isltlon: po-Isltlon: that on Monday last tn prose cution nad repeatedly stated in nis 'arguments that the only court in the I nlted Stat. with courage enough t" breat away from the nylng declaration rule was the Kansas supreme court. Intimating. Judge Roberts said, that the city court might not have tho courage. He deplored Bitch tactics, he said, and staled emphatically that hereafter here-after he did not waut any such references ref-erences but wished merely for the j facts In any case, and the law as ap-I ap-I plied to such tacts. He stated that the courage of tne court was an im-I im-I material matter and should not be I gone Into as It placed the court In an j unenviable position. It was' entirely improper for the prosecution to Insinuate, In-sinuate, he said, that tho court might need some courage to arrive at a dc-' dc-' clslon. I Judge Roberts then took up the 'question of the defense's alleged Insinuation In-sinuation on Tuesday that the court j would bind over tho defendant re-gardless re-gardless of the evidence. He stated lon let 1 he matter pass but was forced I to stop such Insinuations when the Iwere repeated. I He insisted that it was the duty of 'lawyers to stick to the facts and to 'call attention to tho law relative to cases. He said that if attorneys would leani their places In courts the courts would get along better and he criticised criti-cised the actions of attorneys in quarreling quar-reling with ono another during the progi . ss 01 a ti lal, or le at ing. He then said: "If this practice Is not stopped It will be necessary for the court to attempt to stop it by appropriate ap-propriate means and procedure. siM it LTORS BOOIiDED. "There is another matter,'' Judgf Roberts said, "that of rash and unwarranted un-warranted statements that spectator 'have been guilty of making That's I Improper. Persons who attend trials aa spectators have no business mailing mail-ing rash and unyvarranted statements. It may become necessary for somebody some-body to explain themselves for making such statements sometime." He stated that It had been called to his attention that some woman had after attending the preliminary hearing hear-ing for a time gone out and made unwarranted un-warranted statements relative to how the hearing was being conducted. He concluded by expressing the wish that It would never be necessary for tbo 1 court to make such a statement to either attorneys or spectators In the' future. I Ho th'?n proceeded to bind the do-I fondant over for trial to the district court and fixed his ball at $3000. Detective Grant Syphon was on hand at tho conclusion of tho trial to take either Meek or $3000 cash to the sheriff. He Insisted on either the dctendant or the oaBh and both tbe defendant and his attorney. George Haiverson. went with him to pollco headquarters to arrange the matter of the ball |