PRISON FOR COUNTESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19215, 2 January 1926, Page 2 (Supplement)

PRISON FOR COUNTESS.

DRAMATIC POTSDAM TRIAL. CHARGES OF THEFT SUCCEED. SENSATIONS ON FINAL DAY. " I am innocent 1 To-morrow I shall not bo alive!" These words were shouted at tho judge by tho weeping Countess Ellinor von Bothmer, a prominent figure in Potsdam society, when .at midnight she was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment by tho Potsdam Court.

"I am innocent," she repeated. " I have fought for the honour of the name of my husband, for my children, and for my unborn child. lam innocent. You may strike me dead, but that is true." Tho beautiful countess was charged with —(1) stealing 500 marks (£25) from a friend at an hotel in Polzin, a Pommeranian holiday resort. (2) the theft of valuable carpets, silver, books, vases, linen, etc., from the house of Herr Rieck, a retired judge, of Potsdam, while he was on holiday. Sensations marked the final days, of tho trial.

A tramp, Otto Stange, came forward and confessed that he was the culprit in the Polzin case. His story, however, roused some suspicions, and he was n> minded by the judge of the penalty of perjury—two years' hard labour. He thought over that for a few days, and was brought into court again. Tramp's Second Thoughts. Stango then admitted his story to i be completely false. Ho declared lie was " down and out,'" that he thought he would get six months' imprisonment for the theft and that, afterwards, the countess would find him a job. But she only gave him 80 marlcs and would promise nothing. " So I have now decided," said Stange, " that I cannot go to hard labour for two years for the paltry sum of 80 marks (about £4}." The countess protested and wept on hearing the man's recantation; her counsel plied him with 100 tricLy questions, but he was not to be shaken this time.

" Herr Judge," ho said proudly, " when I came here first I was a liar. Now you have before you a man who, happily, has recovered his conscience." A Veiled Woman.

Two Roman Catholic priests told how a woman, heavily veiled and elegantly dressed, had delivered letters to them. They were signed " A Dying Woman," and stated that her son was responsible for tho thefts from Herr Rieck's house. He had emigrated to Poland. The " Dying Woman," therefore, thought itwas right to let this bo known, " as an innocent person was being charged with the theft." A stir was caused in court when the hand-writing experts declared that the letters were undoubtedly written by the countess.

Herr Rieck gave evidence wholly in favour of his friend, the countess, or, rather, he constantly repeated that he did not believe she had committed tho thefts. But another witness declared that Herr Rieck had told him that he (Herr Rieck) believed that the countess had, behind his back, been playing liim false for a long time.

Tho police came very badly out of the ailair. Time and again, witnesses, when the statements they had made to the police were read in court, roundly declared they were false. Strange Police Methods.

"The polico are lying," said one wit ness when his statement was put before him. " I never said anything of the sort to the police," said another. " The? statement attributed to mo is a fabrication by the declared a third. The niece, of the countess declared that the polico had deliberately written down, as her statement, something she had never said, and then asked her to sign" it. Counsel for the defence strongly protested against tho methods of the' police right _ throughout the affair. They had, ho said, stopped at nothing in getting up their case against the countess, but anything" in her favour had been wholly suppressed.

The police, for instance, said they had a witness who saw the countess' niece carrying a package at a spot near where some of the stolen goods were found buried. But the witness was never produced.

Anonymous Letters. During the case the chief figures in the affair have received hundreds of anonymous letters. Judge ajad counsel on both sides have been threatened with serious consequences, both by partisans and the opponents of the countess.

The only amusing episode in the whole trial was when the chief counsel for the prosecution read out an anonymous letter, the writer of which told him to stop wearing a monocle, as it was not in keeping with the dignity of the court! ° The flood of anonymous letters lasted till the end of the case, which had occupied ten days.

Counsel for the defence had just finished his speech when the final document of that kind was delivered in court. It was signed "An Unknown Woman," and said that her husband had sold to the countess articles which it was alleged she had stolen. The final speeches were of unusual length. Counsel for the prosecution and defence occupied nine hours between them, and after the court had deliberated lor three hours the judge spoke for nearlv two hours.

In spito c 'f her declaration that she would not be alive on the following day the countess gave notice of appeal Vast crowds—nearly all Potsdam'must have been there—waited outside tho court to near the verdict. .