PRISON FOR COUNTESS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 7 January 1926, Page 7

PRISON FOR COUNTESS.

Dd’.V.MAIK POTSDAM TRIAL. IiH.AR.GES OK TM.EiK I SI Gt KEIL “1 am innocent! To-munow I shall not be alive!" Tbc.se wolds wane shouted at the judge by the weeping (. otiiiLess E,llium son ikilhnier. a prominent figure in Potsdam .society, when al innlmghi ,-lie wa> sentenced to twelve nionUi.s' imprisonment by the Potsdam Court. ”1 am innocent." .she repealed, “i have fought lor the honour of the name of my husband, for my children, and for my niiliorn child. I am innocent. You may .strike me dead, but that is true." The beautiful countess was charged with—(f) stealing .300 marks (L 25) l roui a Irientl at an hotel in Pobnn. a Pdinmeranian holiday resoit; (2) tlie theft of valuable carpets, •silver, books, cases, linen, etc., from t.he house o! Ilerr Rieck. a retired judge, of Potsdam,, while lie wa.s on holiday. Sensations marked the final days of the trial. A. tramp. Otto Slange. came lorwartl and confessed that he was the culprit in the Pol/ju case. His .story, however. roused ■•urine .suspicions, and lie was reminded by the judge cd the penalty of perjury—two years' iiaid labour, i lie thought over that lor a lew days, and was brought into court again. Tramp's Second Thoughts. Slange then admitted his story to he completely false. He declared he was “down and out,” that he thought he would get six month's imprisonment lor the theft and that, afterwards, the conn Loss would find him a job. Hut she only gave him N(il maiks. and would j romi.se nothing. “So I have now decided." said Slange. “that 1 cannot go to hard labour for two years, for the palti.v sum ol S ; marks (about L'-l)." Tin- c(HinLess protested and wept on hearing the man's recantation; her < .uu-cT plied him with l<)(> tricky questions. but he was not to lie shaken this t ime. “TJ.err Judge,” lie <said pioudly. "when I. came here first I was a liar. Now you have before you a man who. happily, ha.s recovered his conscience.' , A Veiled Woman. I wo Roman Catholic priests told how a woman, heavily veiled and elegantli dressed, had delivered letfeis to them. They were isigned “A Dying Woman, and stated that her son was responsible for the thefts lrom Herr RieekV house. He had emigrated to Poland. Flu: “Dying Woman,” therefore, thought it was: right to let this he known, “as an innocent person was being charged with the theft.” 1

A stir was caused in court when the iiainhvriting experts declared that the letters were undoubtedly written by the countess. Herr Rticck gave evidence wholly in iavoiir ol his liiend, ihe tountess, or, rather, lie constantly repeated that he did not believe she had committed the thefts. Hut aoothei witness declared that Herr Rieck had told him that lie (Heir Rieck) believed that the countess had, behind his back, been playing him false for a long time". the police came very badly ouL ol i lie* allan. Fiine and again, witnesses, when the statements they had made to the police were lead in court, roundly nci hired they were Mdse. Strange Police Methods. "Flic police aie lying," said one niL-iic-s when Ins statement wa> put fiei. e him. "J nevei said anything oi the sort to the ponce, saiu anouiei. "i:ne statement aiin.buicu. to me is a I no. n ation ,uy the pome, ' deeiaieu a mi. it. I lie niece oi the countess deem ied that Uie police nail, deii'oet a teiy Wilton down, as her statement, suinemiiig .she had never said, and th.cn j'.si\cd nci to sign it. Counsel lor me dglenee stiongiy pioie>teci against the methods ol tlie police right- tliiongliout the allan. Joey had. ne said, stopped at nothing in gening up theii case- against the counte.ss, iiiil anything mmu itnoui mu, been wholly .suppressed. File police, lor instance, said they had a witness who saw the countess's mote cm lying a package at a spot near wlieie some ol the .stolen \goods weie bin led. Ihu the wit ness was never pi nioned. A inmy moils Let Lei ■>. During the ca-e the cliiel liguies m me uuaii nave ic.eivei iniwuei.u «.i anonymous letters, o tinge aim luuiise. mi mull slues have been mi ealened wit., •c. n ils i oaseqiiencLs, 0,,m o\ paitisans . ii.i mo o,|.panents ol me con a less. i lie mill amusing episode in (litwhole ii mi was when me duel cuun- • .< loi me pi iisei iliian ie.ul o'm an uli- . ii , mine lenei . Lhe w rilei ol which loi,. iliin to stop wealing a mono. ie. a- i. ...is not in Keeping wmi llic 'dignity ol ine coil 1 1 ! ihe no,-al ol anonymous ietieis la--leu ■in Lite eml ol the case, which hail occupied ten clays. counsel, fin tile defence had just finished his (speech when the nnai document ol mat kind was delivered 111 mult. It was signed “An l liknown 'human, and '-.aid that her hm-banu hail sold to the countess ai tides w hich u was alleged .she had stolen. The final s[>eeiTies were ol unusual length. Uounsel lor the in oseeiltlon ami defence occupied nine horns between them, and altei the court had ue.'iberated lur tinee hums the judge poke ior neaily two iioui.s. In spite of her decimation chat .-he Wo ii I<l no-t he alive on tile lollowmg day, the cciunte-ss gave notice ol apj, Vast crowds —nearly all Potsdam must have been tiieie —waited outside tlie court to bear the veulict.