RESISTED CONSTABLE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 112, 5 February 1935, Page 14

RESISTED CONSTABLE

Fines Follow Argument in a Cafe Called into the Blue Bird cafe in Manners Street shortly after midnight on Saturday night, to settle an argument concerning the ownership of a rug, Constable A. T. Morrison found it necessary to take a man in charge. The sequel was heard in the Magistrate’s Court, Wellington, yesterday, when two men were charged with wilfully obstructing a constable in the execution of his duty. The men were James Ellis Burt, presser and driver, aged 36. and James Joseph Clarence McLaughlin, optician and motor driver, aged 34. While the constable was inquiring into the dispute, which was between two women, Burt, who was not in the party, interfered, and the constable found it necessary to take him in charge. Burt resisted, and McLaughlin then shut the door, which had been open, and put his foot agafhst it to prevent the policeman getting his prisoner outside. The proprietor then opened the door, and policeman and prisoner went along Manners Street with McLaughlin following and trying to pull Burt away. Eventually the aid of two taxi drivers was secured. That was the story Sub-Inspector C. E. Roach told the Court, adding that both men had been in trouble before. Burt said tjiat he did not remember barring the door. He had been drinking and that was the reason he had acted as he did. McLaughlin stated that lie bad had a few drinks also, and had not thought at the time that he had been doing wrong.

The magistrate, Mr. W. F. Stilwell, fined McLaughlin £5 in default one month’s imprisonment, and Burt was fined £2/10/- in default 14 days’ imprisonment, for resisting the constable, and £l, in default seven days’ imprsonment for using obscene language. Each man was allowed seven days in which to pay. Seaman Converts Car.

When Mr. J. F. McKenna came out of his premises in Molesworth Street at 5.25 p.m. on Saturday, he noticed his car some distance down the road. Ou reaching the vehicle he found John McQueen Bolton, seaman, aged ’3l, in the driver’s seat, with his foot on the selfstarter. Bolton, who was under the influence of liquor, said he had been asked to shift the car by another man, and had got in to release the brake. This explanation Bolton repeated in court yesterday when he was charged with converting the car, valued at £250, to his own use. The magistrate sentenced him to one month’s imprisonment.