Show ar MOB ACTION PERILS LIBERTY OF FIVE HANDING blanding MEN manhandling Man handling of officers and the liberation of prisoner from ja jail il charged constitute felony last friday night or very early saturday morning a most surprising and disgraceful affair occurred in the basement of the county court house which is diable to attended by very serious con g ances aces for five blanding men nw s are now under bonds to appear at the next session of the district court charged with feloniously assisting a prisoner to escape ic from the county bastile the men so charged are paul J black a prominent business man of blanding owner of the black service station and pauls cafe ed keele and donald blake engineer and superintendent respectively of the camp at that place bernard black and dick nielson according to the testimony given at the preliminary hearing before justice of the peace george P F barton the ruckus started when deputy county sheriff chas li sipe of blanding undertook to serve a bench warrant on one jim hunt also a enrollee for speeding on the state highway through the town of blanding some six weeks ago who was granted a stay of execution for the payment of a 1000 fine and failing to comply with the court order was served with the bench warrant to enforce payment of the fine or in lieu cherof to serve five days in the county jail officer serves warrant the officer testified that he had been holding the bench warrant for a number of days but was unable to locate the defendant until friday evening when he was atten attending aing a dance at the close of the dance the officer accosted hunt and informed him of his mission the defendant demanded rn to see the warrant and the officer proceeded to read it to him and received the declaimer fit he was not going to pay the se e and neither was he going to jail thereupon the deputy sheriff produced a pair of handcuffs and snapped one of the bands around the prisoners wrist one or two of hunts friends were present and interfered with the officer and sipe retaliated by biff ing one of them with the butt or side of his service revolver bishop rogers restrained another of the men who was one of the above mentioned defendants and the officer led his man from the hall ball and across to the home of W R dodge who occasionally assisted as a deputy and had a car whom the officer deputized upon this occasion provided him with a gun and arranged tor for him odive eun sd ive them to Montice adoner lodged in jail on teaching reaching monticello they awakened mr lewis careta caretaker kerat at the court house and were admitted the cells are in the basement and they had barely placed the prisoner in the cage adjusted the bar across the door and slipped the padlock into the staple when they heard footsteps approaching pro aching across the hall above and rapidly descending the stairs to the basement when the above five defendants appeared led by paul black and at least one of them exposing a revolver they demanded to know where hunt was and being told that he was in the cell they wanted to know what the hell he was there for the officer informed them of the warrant and black demanded to see it sipe attempted to read it but the men crowded about and he handed the warrant to black there were oaths and the f foremost ore one paul black the officer stated struck him on the side of the face with this the minion of the law drew his gun and struck his assailant other blows were struck on both sides and then three more of the men rushed the officer while one of them stood guard over his deputy to see that he did not use his gun A lively scrimmage there was a lively scrimmage as the blood stains in the basement still bore mute evidence tuesday the officer making lively use of his gun as a flail until the rain of blows and weight of numbers bore him to the floor and the blows that continued to descend upon his unprotected head jaws and neck rendered him helpless and half conscious then according to the testimony of mr lewis the care taker some member of the mob unfastened the door to the cell motioning and calling to the prisoner to come out which after some hesitation he did As soon as the officer was able to walk he left the basement and ascended the stairs making for sheriff allreds alfreds All reds home in the meantime a youth who had also been a witness to much of the raid had been dispatched by the caretaker for the sheriff who met sipe at his door as he arrived there sheriff takes command in the street they met the mob including the released prisoner and the sheriff at once took matters in hand he recovered the guns of the deputies which had been taken from them sensing by this time the of their actions the offenders chipped in and among them paid the fine of hunt and obtained the per continued on page 13 surprising MOB ACTION PERILS LIBERTY OF FIVE BLANDING MEN continued from froin first page mission of the sheriff for him to return home because of the fact that the members of the mob were nominally respectable citizens who doubtless had become emotionally and temporarily insane and also due to their r bloody bloods and battle scarred appearance the dherit permitted them to return to 0 their homes upon their own recognizance cognizance and their promise to be in monticello saturday to face charges lo 10 be preferred against them this promise they kept with the exception of paul blask black who was not able at that time and were served with warrants var rants based apon a joint complaint charging hem with a felony assisting a prisoner ri to escape from jail they the y ipp appeared eared before justice barton nd ind were bound over to the ds brict court as above stated staled they ipac led w without phout counsel bail ras as fixed at each paul black had his preliminary hearing yesterday afternoon and ws vs placed under tail hail to appear in district court black was defended by atty F B hammond it is understood that bail was furnished by each of the defendants and they are now at liberty belated chapter of early history and thus is added a belated chapter to the history of outlawry f for or which this section of utah was notorious in the early days of its settlement like a bad dream it appears to be a ha hangover g of those early terrifying daye day when every man was a law unto himself and life and prop ert erty were ere never too secure weak and vacillating law enforcement in the town of blanding for a number of years back is largely responsible for this lack of respect for the representatives of the law and back of this outbreak are rumors of threats and intimidations giving evidence of a smoldering volcano which threatened an eruption and broke forth violently on the night of september 30 now that it has come to the surface perhaps all parties concerned will see matters in a truer light and be more rational in their future behavior let us hope that the matter will end here with this serious les lesson and all feel thankful that the officers gun jammed before he had a chance to shoot one or more of his attackers which he w would 0 u I 1 d have been justified in doing |