LAW AND POLICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11537, 23 November 1900, Page 7

LAW AND POLICE.

SUPREME COURT.—Cbiminai Sittings. (Before His Honor Mr. Justice Conolly.) i£ra criminal sittings of the Supreme Court were continued yesterday. ALLEGED EXTORTION. Frederick Russell, aged about 36, pleaded not guilty when charged upon an indictment containing three counts, the first being for extorting money from John Parun, at Parengarenga, on July 31 last, by threats of prosecution; the second demanding money by menaces; and the third for stealing the money in question, namely, £5. The Hon. J. A. Tolo prosecuted for the Crown. Prisoner, who pleaded not guilty, was defended by Mr. J. R. Reed. John Parun. an Austrian gumdigger, stated that he rode into Parengarenga on the day in question. His horse had a sore back. The prisoner lookod at the animal. Witness mot the prisoner that night, and said he understood that ho (witness) was going to be summoned by the prisoner because the horse had a sore back. Ho offered prisoner money not to summons him, and prisoner said: "Very well, you give mo £5 to-morrow morning." They met again next morning, and prisoner said: "Give me £5, and I won't call you to the Court." Witness gave him the £5. Prisoner put £4 in his pocket, and offered £1 to an Austrian standing by. so that he should not tell anyone, but the Austrian refused tho money. About ten days later prisoner came out to witness' camp, 20 miles from Parengarenga. They all took him to Tie a policeman. Ho said he had a summons for witness about the horse, and witness asked why there should bo a summons after he had paid the £5. Prisoner then said neither of them need trouble about it any more. He took witness into a wharo and asked him to sicrn some documents, but witness refused. Prisoner said tho document was to make peace between them. In answer to Mr. Reed, witness denied that the money was paid to allow him to dig gum on prisoner's land. Ho admitted receiving the document produced. It purported to be a license permitting witness to dig gum on prisoner's land for two years for the sum of £5. Two other witnesses were examined. Mr. Reed did not call witnesses. Addressing the jury, ho contended that they were quite justified in assuming that tho £5 was paid for the right to dig gum. He contended that even if the prosecutor's story wore true, there was no evidence that the prisoner either extorted monoy by throats or demanded money by menaces. His Honor said that if Parun's statement were true, he had himself committed a serious crime by offering a brihe to a man whom ho believed to bo" a policeman, so that ho would not lay an information. It did not'appear to His Honor that Parun had spoken to any expressions used liy the prisoner which could amount to a threat or a monare. The jury returned a. verdict of not guilty, and prisoner was discharged. TEIUUKT. Two girls, Jannita Millanta and Clara Fedetta. admitted having committed perjury at a sitting of the Magistrate's Court, Auckland, on August 22, in the hearing of a charge of sly grog-selling against Isabella Millanta. The accused Fodetta said she did it to save her mother. His Honor, taking into account the idea of guilty, and tho fact that the girls had committed the offence to shield a relation from pur/ishment on a not very serious charge, admitted them to probation for six months. » THEFT. A young man named Oswald Mark Cullen pleaded guilty to the theft of £34, the property of Walter Lewis, butcher, of Victoriastreet. Auckland. Mr. Tale stated that all the money but £1 had been recovered. Mr. Lewis was called, and stated that the prisoner had been in his employ for three years, during which time ho had been entrusted with money, and had always been quite honest. His Honor ordered prisoner to enter into his own recognisances to come up for sentence when called upon. ASSAULT AND THEFT. Michael Kelly, a sturdy-looking man, denied having, on November 3, 1900, stolen £9. the property of Thomas Tinnelly, from the dwelling-house of Samuel Marks, restau-rant-keeper, Queen-street, Auckland, and also having, on the same date, assaulted Thomas Tinneily. The Hon. J. A. Tolo prosecuted. The evidence was to the effect that both men were sleeping at Marks' boarding-house. Between four and five o'clock in tho morning Tinnelly, who had put £9 in his trousers under his pillow, was awakened and saw prisoner with the trousers in his hands. Tinneily asked what he was doing, and prisoner dealt him a blow, after which he cleared out. Tho money was missing, and the same day prisoner, who previously had no money, was found paying £4 to a tailor for a suit of clothes, and spending other money. The jury found tho prisoner guilty, and His Honor imposed a sentence of two years. Prisoner was just out of gaol after serving a sentence of four years for robbery. • The Court resumes at ten o clock this morning.

M \GISTRATE'S COURT.— (Before Mr. H. W. Brabant. S.M.) Judgment was given for the plaintiff by default in the following cases: —Direct Supply Company (Mr. McVeagh) v. Nellie Home, claim £5 13s, costs £1 33 6d; Robert i>tow (Mr. Gribbin) v. G. Peterson, claim £3, costs 12s; Meldrum and Browne (Mr. Baxter) v. Henry Owen Cummane, claim £1 6s-6d, costs ss; T. T. Bayntnn (Mr. Baxter) v. H. O. Cummane, claim £3 16s 3d, costs 10s. POLICE COURT NEWS. Mess:j. R. Udy and J. H. Harrison presided at the Police Court yesterday. Drunkenness: Eliza Lestrange, an old offender, was sent to gaol for three months' hard labour for this offence, and a firstoffender was convicted and discharged. Breaches of By-laws: For wheeling a milk dandy on the footpath in Elliott-street, Robert Lucas was convicted and ordered to pay costs, 7s. Robert Greene was fined 10a, and costs 7s, for driving a vehicle round the corner of Khvber Pass Road and Sy-monds-street. at other than a walking pace; and Herbert Brown 10s, and costs 7s, for riding a bicycle on the footpath in St. Stephen's Road, Parnell. Eugene Flynn, charged with driving a vehicle in Karahapo Road, without a light, was fined ss, and costs 7s. Remanded: William Hughes was remanded till Tuesday next on a charge of having forged the name of C. Nieholls to an order for a supply of calendars, and causing Percy Spencer to act on the same as if it were genuine. Breaches of School Attendance Act: A number of parents wore charged with neglecting to send their children to school, and fines imposed as follows: Thomas Richards, Thos. Covle, David McQuoid, Edward L. Htiehes, 2s each: Geo. Martin, Fred!:. L. Hedges, Catherine Snnthgate. Patrick Starkev. Robert Purcell, Win. Neal. 4s each; Wm. Wilkinson. Robt. Rutherford, Patrick O'Shea, Wm. Burtenshaw, Henry Banfield, and Jane Brown, 6s each; Clara Hcrapnlh, John Keir, Robert Robertson, 8s each; Geo. Austin, 10s; John Williams. 14s; Samuel Armstrong, 16s. Similar charges against Alice Riley, Eliza Lupton. Eliza W. Hall, Jas. Patrick Bovle, and Chas. Nicklin v.-cm adjourned for three weeks, to see if their children attended regularly in the meantime. Mr. Small conducted the cases. ONEHUNGA POLICE COURT. At the Orehunga Police Court yesterday, before Dr. W. R. CloseErson, J.P., a man named Frank Armstrong was charged with having no lawful visible means of support. Constable McCarthy, who laid the information, deposed that the department hud been soliciting alms in the neighbourhood of Epsom and One-tree Hill for some time, and had caused considerable annoyance to the | housekeepers in those districts. Armstrong I was sentenced to one month's imprisonment in Mount Eden Gaol.