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Show VARIAN'S BOMB-SHELL! The Third District Court Knocks tlie . "Moral" Crusade Higher Than a Kite. A Scathing Review of the Infamous Plot and the Fellows Engaged En-gaged in It. Jndge Zane Dismisses the Lewis Case, and Says Language Is Inadequate ; to Describe the Infamy. S. II. Lewis, arrested by the city officials offi-cials on the charge of resorting to a house of ill-fame for lewdness, appeared in the Third District Court this morning with his attorneys, Messrs. Sheeks& Rawlins, and demanded a time set for trial forthwith. forth-with. Assistant United States Attorney C. S. Varian then arose and made the following motion: I was notified that the defendant desired de-sired to have a trial, and I have investigated investi-gated the matter and now desire to. present pre-sent my conclusions to the court in order that the court may take such action as may le warranted upon my suggestion. This case is a case of appeal from the Justice's Court upon the provisions of the Revised Statutes of the laws of Utah, which provides a penalty for keeping, residing re-siding in or resorting to houses of ill-fame, ill-fame, for the purposes of lewdness. The j defendant, it appears by the complaint, is charged with the violation of that 6tatute, and with having resorted to a certain house for the purposes - indicated . under that statute. This is a case one of a number of cases which has been prominently before be-fore the public during the past three weeks, under circumstances of great notoriety. noto-riety. I therefore desire to state for the benefit of the Court. Grand Jurv, and others interested, THE FACTS THAT ARE II MY KNOWLEDGE, Drawn out by the investigation of the Grand Jury, as well as the public press. For some years the statute has been upon the Territorial statute book, so far as my knowledge goes, and no prosecutions have ever been instituted under it. It has been, so far as the authorities here are concerned , a dead letter upon the statute book. As indicated by the report of the Grand Jury, of which your Honor will take no-tice.it no-tice.it is said there are and have been quite I a number of houses of ill-fame in this city, known to the officers of the law as houses of ill-fame. This being so, about March or April. of the present year, a number of individuals, some of them holding official relations in the Territorial, Ter-ritorial, County and Municipal government, gov-ernment, and perhaps acting in their official capacities; entered into a combination combi-nation one with the other to raise funds to carry out certain purposes, and AGREED TO HIRE HOUSES AXD PROSTITUTES ' To place in these houses in order that in- dividuals in the community might be induced in-duced to visit them. Preparations were made in pursuance ,of this scheme, whereby such persons, male and female, who might be induced to enter these places, could be observed, and whatever they or any of them did there could be noted. In carrying out this undertaking, two now notorious places were procured by them, on the same street in this town-West town-West Temple street. One of the women was installed in one place, and one in another, lxrth of the women being employed em-ployed for the purpose. One of the avowed objects was to disgrace high officials offi-cials in the Territory. One of the particular partic-ular designs of this undertaking was to drag down the Governor, who stands here as the first citizen of the Territory, and a large sum of money was promised' to these j leople if either of them should he able to I accomplish that, design. As a matter of I fact " I REWAHDS WEKH to be paid to these i WOMEN For the services they were to ierforin. The houses were furnished for them, and every police officer in this city, except two, entered into the combination or scheme and gave his services, not perhaps per-haps in the capacity of a policeman, but as an individual it is said, in his hours off duty, so the Grand Jury.sav as a spy and spotter in aid of this undertaking, j One of the selectmen of this county contributed con-tributed to this laudable undertakinr $500 as his individual contribution, in order that 'it might 1)3 carried out. I understand that the municipal authorities authori-ties and the county authorities, as such, disclaim, as they may very properly do, any knowledge or understand! in', nr in formation even, of this conspiracy, and what was done in pursuance of it, until it had reached its end and become public. Your Honor will observe, first, that this is a private scheme it is not a public pub-lic one; that it is entered into bv individuals indi-viduals who have no relation to tlie law and its enforcement other than an individual indi-vidual or private citizen may have ; that it had for its object not the detection of existing crime, not the carrving out and enforcing of this law, but the erection of new houses of tiie character we find in the statute, having for its end no public good, but one to bring about A PUBLIC SCANDAL, FOUNDED IN MALICE, And conceived in a spirit of revenge- for fancied wrongs. -This conspiracy was entered into and carried out, as I have said.' When the time of exposure came, the accomplices of these men and women were sent away, out of the Territory, with means furnished them for that purpose. Hired counsel were procured to assist in thejprosecution of supposed offenders; and right here I might say that the originally conceived intention was to procure the arrest and conviction with this evidence, and by the means I have stated, under a city ordi nance, ana nor- tne law ot the Territory at all. When the time came, complaints were filed in great numbers, warrants were issued and some arrests made, and then for the first time we find the municipal munici-pal authorities proceeding in the matter. It was determined by your Honor in this Court that this ordinance was invalid and of no effect, that any prosecution under it would be wrong, and, as a necessary neces-sary consequence, every arrest under it rendered the party making the arrest GUILTY OF FALSE IMPRISONMENT. Notwithstanding this end had been j reached in this way, so far as perhaps the ! original design was concerned proceedings j are further instituted under the statute of ' tlie Territory. And vour Honor will j recollect that an attempt was made to punish a certain kind of conduct without I reference to the place where the conduct ! might have lwn. The conduct itself of i the individual or individuals was within ! the ban of the law and was sought to 1 ' restrained hy tins penal ordinance in that way. If that ordinance was valid, it might well be said that it would make no difference where the offense was committed, com-mitted, whether in a public or private house given to this purjxjse. But, as I said liefore, the prosecutions now at this time were renewed, this time under the Territorial statute, and your i Honor will perceive that, if I am correct in what I have stated, ' WE HAVE TniS SITUATION PRESENTED First There is a law on the Territorial i statute book which has for its manifest j object and design the suppression of i houses of ill-fame. That is its object, and the provision against resorting thereto by individuals is only an incident to that object. It is not limited by the statute to punishing the individual, but as a necessary neces-sary means ; in aid of the object of the statute, the . Legislature very properly added a clause relative to resorting to such places. Thus itdiffers, as will be perceived, in its general object and scope, j from the ordinance. This being so, we I find a case like this: A criminal and corrupt conspiracy is entered into to open houses of ill-fame in violation of the law of the Territory. It is participated in by the very men who, of all others, ought to have set their faces against it. Its object, of necessity, must be simply to STRIKE DOWN AND SCANDALIZE INDIVIDUAL REPUTATION, And. cannot be for the suppression - of houses of ill-lame, and cannot, be within the scope and- design of this statute. Every man in it, connected with it in any degree, sufficient in kind to make him directly di-rectly or indirectly an actor, is guilty of a crime himself. The Grand Jury have decided de-cided for themselves that every one connected con-nected with the transaction is guilty of a crime, and they have promptly indicted these men who are engaged in these prosecutions as conspirators and as keepers of houses of ill-fame, which houses they do not deny they, caused to be erected here. I will be compelled to be a little more definite, perhaps, in my statement of the facts of individual cases, in order that I may clearly indicate to your Honor the kind and character of evidence upon which these prosecutions are supposed to stand. As a matter of fact, referring to the preparations I spoke of a few moments mo-ments ago, PLACES OF CONCEALMENT WERE PREPARED f In the interior apartments of these houses, where from time to time two or three of these people engaged in this undertaking would be' placed, and they were permitted to observe,' so they say, through the medium of cracks, small holes or apertures, what was done, and to hear what was said by the people they had induced and pulled into the houses. This scheme was not confined alone to watching these individual individ-ual cases. It seems that one of the main witnesses against the defendant is a man who is under indictment now in this court for the crimes of polygamy and unlawful cohabitation, and who is now a defendant defend-ant in a suit upon the bond of the very woman, who kept the house in which it is said these offenses charged in this complaint was committed. This is strong circumstantial evidence, to say the least, that that man was in the conspiracy. con-spiracy. He is on the bond of the woman, and he was there, if he is to be believed as a witness, and he give3 evidence to that effect. The other two witnesses were also in the conspiracy, if they are to be believed. One of them is a police officer. Both of them, they say, were there. LOOKING THROUGH A CRACK IN THE nnnR Of the house they had helped to buifd They had conspired to scandalize this community and to do a ereat public wrong. If any one of these "conspirators were on trial under the law of the Territory, Terri-tory, these others would be accomplices, and the ban of the law would be laid upon them in their testimony, and the jury would not be permitted to believe them, by express provision of the statute. Technically, they are not accom plices with the defendant r in this matter. Upon their own showing, show-ing, it being assumed ' that he was there, ' every reason that could exist to move the Legislature to throw that shield around the citizen against the testimony tes-timony of accomplices, exists with greater force in this case. Every object that could exist, every motive that could induce in-duce a man to testify falsely, exists here, j This, it appears, is J . A LABOR OF LOVE, as wen as a labor of private malice. Some of the persons engaged in this characteristic, character-istic, elevated undertaking, served for lucre, while others participated for the good of the cause, whatever that cause may be. With them it was a labor of love, and all united in the strong desire to accomplish a common end ; with different dif-ferent motives, perhaps, as I have suggested. sug-gested. The methods that were employed, em-ployed, the depth of infamy to which all persons connected with this scheme descended, evidences that their testimony ! would not bo taken by anv upright or honorable jury in any court in a civilized land. The history of the past is that the people have always set their faces strongly against even informers, who are necessarily necessa-rily officers in the administration of the law. . Your Honor will recollect in English history a long line of cases where tliei-P was rebellion threatening the British throne, and where the interests of the hour and the demarfdsof justice required that this class of arsons should be used and employed in bringing to justice offenders against the law. I say your Honor will recollect how the English and Irish people steadily stead-ily set their face3 against that class of testimony, and it took all the power of the British crown and the judges under it to enforce a verdict in the teeth and face of the public conscience. In this country coun-try it is believed that no prosecutions founded upon that kind of evidence can be maintained, for the reason that THE PUBLIC CONSCIENCE IS AGAINST IT, And the public conscience, as represented m the jury box, will not permit the law to be prostituted and sacrificed and dishonored dis-honored in that way. " Now, if that be true generally as to persons known as informers and spies, how much more true is it of persons who are not entitled to even take that elevated name? They are not -raised to the dignity of informer and. spies; they are not men. engaged in ferreting outtrime; they are men who are producing crime, who by their money, influence or efforts, are aeoaucning uie public mind, and attempting at-tempting to lead the young and the ' old down tlie - very path that it was de--signed to keep them from going. Men and women, old and young, were to be drawn into their toils in order that they may have the supreme happiness and satisfaction of scandalizing reputations and breaking hearts here and there, or something of that kind. What would your Honor say if I 'were I to come here with an indictment against a citizen for uttering counterfeit money, and he were to be presented for trial, and ! it should appear from the evidence that the police of the city had procured dies and other instruments necessary,. and had rented a place up here in the canyon in which to manufacture the spurious coin, and when the money was made and ready to circulate; : THEY PUT OUT SPIES AND SPOTTERS : For the purpose of trying to get citizens to come in and pass the coin, in order that they mijiht comolain land procure their conviction? What 1 woulJthe community think of a prosecuting prosecut-ing officer who would so far forget his duty as to neglect to' take his proper position on the question? . Under such circumstances the communitv would say. the public would say universally, tout duty is to indict the conspirators ;' the public good does not require that you should proceed against this man under these circumstances. - - Instances may be" multiplied showing the distinction between employing men and money to. detect crime having as the ultimate object of the undertaking the suDpression of crime, from this case, which presents entirely new and distinct features. It is a matter of public record here that the PARTIES ENGAGED IN THIS - CONSPIRACY - HAVE BEEN INDICTED, And they are to be put upon their trial. I am to be called upon to prosecute them. I am now called upon to prosecute their victims. Are both right? If they are right and justified in this undertaking, I they ought not to be put upon their trial here by this Grand Jury, and I ought not to be permitted to oppress and harass men engaged in the line of their duty, j and I would not be if it were an ordinary case or usual case of officers of the law engaged en-gaged in the detection of crime, for all just ! and wise persons and the laws of all civilized States recognize the necessity for the employment of agencies for the detection of crime. The consequence is that such agents are used in carrying out the enforcement of the laws in the way that I have indicated, but never yet, I believe, was such a scheme as this presented pre-sented here to me as the prosecuting officer of-ficer and I must act upon my oath of rffifp - NEVER WA - .ol'C'H. A SCHEME PRESENTED BEFORE ' In a court cf justice, and I cannot believe that it will be permitted, or that it ought to be' permitted, to be canied out' to its legitimate end and conclusion. I don't believe one of these scoundrels scoun-drels who comes upon the stand and testifies tes-tifies that he entered into this undertaking, undertak-ing, and that he stripped himself of his manhood if he ever had any and got down in all his naked infamy and crawled at the threshhold of the house of a harlot, har-lot, to view, to see, to understand all the secret vices of humanity, in order that he may give them, broadcast to the world, in order that he may furnish entertainment to the families of the community, and debauch de-bauch the mind of the public, and the young and rising generation, in a way" no man can tell how far-reaching far-reaching the consequences maybe I say I would not believe such a man if he stood in the high court of heaven itself.. I don't believe that any American jurv, any jury composed of men who understand under-stand sdrealize the privilegesof free men and know what it is to live in a country like this, aiid understand the easy working work-ing of the laws designed for the nAPPfNESS AND PROTECTION AND BENEFIT OF ALL, I don't believe that any American jury would believe such an infamous scoundrel. scoun-drel. And I say here, standing as a prosecuting officer, right here upon the prosecution of the first of these cases that has come up to this court, that I set my face against it; - that no man connected, with our office shall prosecute them. With my consent they shall not be prosecuted prose-cuted in this Court. I think it would be a shame and a disgrace to the administration administra-tion of the law ; it would be a HUMILIATION OF TnE GODDESS OF JUSTICE To allow these cases to be prosecuted here in this court under the circumstances I have indicated, and I refuse to prosecute them, and with my consent they shall not be prosecuted. I shoulder all the responsibility respon-sibility right now, and answering to the officers in authority over me and to the public at large, as I do to my own conscience, con-science, for my action, I move to dismiss this case. I don't believe in the reliability reliabil-ity of this testimony nor in the truth of these charges. I know there could be no conviction had, and I am sure there I ought not to be. In relation to the motion of United States District Attorney C. S. Varian for the dismissal of the suits of the People of Utah against S. H. Lewis, the Court presented a lengthy and sound argument in summing up the facts presented, which in brief is about as follows : This case in question has been appealed from the Justice'- Court to this Court, and it is now moved by the Assistant Prosecuting Attorney to dismiss the suit for reasons which he has stated, some of which I will now mention. ' Here the J udge made a terse statement of all the vital points set forth by Mr. Varian, and said the Grand Jury has been and is now investigating the facts relating to the source of this prosecution, and that the substance of the facts as they appear to the Grand Jury, and other information of a reliable source, are, that the prosecutors of this case and the witnesses, some of them, are police officers, and one of the witnesses was a man who was indicted for unlawful cohabitation. co-habitation. From these and other sources it appears that CONSPIRACY WAS ENTERED INTO By which prostitutes were employed for hire to open houses of ill-fame in this city. It seems these houses were rented by these prosecutors and these urosti- ' tutes placed therein with the agreement that they should entice such persons as they might wish, and officers of the U. S. Government and others who take an interest in-terest in the enforcement of the laws in this Territory against polygamy and unlawful un-lawful cohabitation. Apertures or openings open-ings were made in the doors through whicn these witnesses were to appearand view the practices engaged in in this house. It appears that there are other hovses in this city, but it is deemed necessary nec-essary to institute and create NEW ONES FOR THIS EXPRESS PURPOSE, And it seems that the object was to commit com-mit a crime in order to get somebody else to violate the laws. .Lust and lechery is strong enough to lead men and women astray. Since all time laws have had to be enforced as a restraining measure against these crimes. Judge Zane. then spoke at length, with strong emphasis, of the immoral practices prac-tices of certain houses. This conduct is infamous, and cannot be characterized in too strong terms. ' i Laws, have one great object to suppress, sup-press, and not to create, crime. ... The District Attorney is an attorney for peace, and having investigated this matter mat-ter as he states he has, I have reasons to believe him as the attnmev fnr th n.. ernment, and this people". We look to him -for Jftte restraining conduct of ' all criminals. It is his duty, after thorough investigation, to prosecute the people he j believes guilt.v. If the motive is to get money .for testifying one way, if the motive is improper, then the testimony of THE WITNESS IS NOT WORTH BELIEVING. Truth and candor follow from pure motives. They cannot come from impure motives, because this love of truth is not m them, and these matters never stand together. When it appears .that a witness wit-ness has testified from malice for fain his testimony should not be believed by any honest man. Assuming that the statements of the District Attorney are true.heis not justified in prosecuting these cases. That being so, I. am disposed to allow him to dismiss these suits. From my experience with the present prosecuting prose-cuting attorneys here, they act upon their own responsibility, and not through timidity tim-idity or. fear or anv such mnfiroa -Tr. view of the facts as stated, the motion is allowed. x . tT1i?Grand Jur-V being present during the Court's decision in the Lewis case, that body of workers were addressed a lew pointed remarks pertaining to their solemn duties in the ferreting out and suppressing of crime within the city where houses of ill-repute are fre quented almost as freely as hotels or churches, to the disgrace of this community. com-munity. These places should be suppressed sup-pressed for the good of society, and not be allowed to stand. Thev are treated as a revenue to the city more than as places of crime to be suppressed. |