A DAY AT THE POLICE COURT.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10043, 23 May 1898, Page 3

A DAY AT THE POLICE COURT.

At the Police Court, occasionally, the proceedings under the guidance of the justices get a trifle mixed. On Friday a man who was charged under the Police Offences Act, when brought up, was not put in the dock, he had the run of the court, and, though more than once reminded by the Bench that he ought to be in the dock, wandered about at his own will. He walked about, sat down, conversed with the witnesses on the back benches, and sometimes. Erompted or contradicted others in the ox. The police officer who conducted the case was painfully loquacious. In a long intioductory speech,, and in many other speeches at various stages, he laid down the law according to his lights, apparently much to his own satisfaction and the disgust of the prisoner's counsel, who in vain, in a gentlemanly manner, edged in repeated protests. Sometimes the most experienced reporter present could not make head or tail of what was going on, as the v Justices, police officer, the accused, and a"witness or two all spoke together, while counsel sat inexpressibly shocked at the disorder. Finally, after the case for the defence had been concluded, the police officer proposed to'call "rebutting" evidence, and the Bench were on the point of allowing it. This was more than . flesh and blood could bear, and counsel, jumping up, indignantly addressed the Bench. ''Rebutting evidence!" he said in accents of Bcorn, "the officer does not seem to know what he is talking about. When < in the course of a trial a new issue is raised rebutting evidence may be called; in this case there is but one issue disclosed and there can be no rebuttal. It is merely a device, most probably used in ignorance, to get in further evidence after the case is closed.'' The police officer wordily protested that his was the proper and certainly the better way. "Do you," said the presiding Justice, impressively, addressing counsel, " De you tell us—aiid the responsibility is on you—that rebutting evidence should not ibe admitted ?" " Certainly I do," said counsel, " most emphatically I do, this is a proposal probably never heard of before." Their Worships bowed to the decision of the prisoner's counsel, and soon afterwards the curtain rang down—that is, the accused was discharged, after a performance—trial— that had been protracted much beyond the time it seemed to require.