CONFUSION IN COURT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 29, 3 February 1904, Page 5

CONFUSION IN COURT.

A REMARKABLE PROSECUTION. To be prosecuted for the theft of what was her own property was the remarkable position of Mr 3 Mary Miller in the Police Court to-day. when she 1 was charged by Alfred Evans with stealing a dog. Evans, a G/rey-slreet labourer, conducted his own case, and claimed the dog as his property. It was given to him on the wharf by a man named Tippett, he said. He called Tippett, and it was then discovered that the dog had also been a present to the latter. Then William Walker entered the witness box. and described how the dog had followed his sister-in-law to his house from (Uadstone-road, Newton, not far from Mrs Miller's house. He remarked to Tippett, "Take the blooming dog or I'll drown it." and the dog wa3 taken. He saw it running around homeless for several weeks. Mr F. E. Baunie, who defended, was contented to wait until -these witnesses had been heard. Then he called two persons who recognised the dog produced by Evans as the property of the Millers. Air Miller gave evidence that it was stolen from his house on July ■ 25th. His Worship concluded that it was quite patent Airs Miller took possession of the dog in the honest belief that it ' was hers. and this was quite sufficient to dispose of criminal proceedings. He ; was satisfied she had proved the dog to 1 be her's, and that Evans had no right 1 whatever to it, having received it from - a person who had no claim to it. The ' prosecution was very improper, and he dismissed it with costs. The latter ; amounted to £1 13/.