A Judge Called Unpaid Hotel Work 'Mild Larceny'—and Freed the Bellboy Who Stole $1.15
Nathan Sanguinetti, a West Indian bellboy at Seattle's Rainier Hotel, was convicted of stealing a planted purse. When Judge Humes learned the hotel had made him work 18 months without pay, he called that the real crime—and a pardon followed.
The story, cleaned up
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TEMPTED TO STEAL.
Nathan Sanguinetti Will Go Free on That Account.
STRANGE FEATURES OF HIS CASE.
Placed in a Position to Steal, a Trap Was Set for Him—His Former Employer Is Criticised by the Judge.
Nathan Sanguinetti was yesterday sentenced by Judge Humes to thirty days in the state penitentiary, but owing to the discovery of facts in regard to his case not brought out at the trial will not even enter the penitentiary, but will serve out a portion of his term.
Sanguinetti is a West Indian, and was formerly a bell boy at the Rainier hotel. Last spring a number of small thefts were committed and suspicion pointed to him as the guilty party and a trap was set for him. A purse of money was placed on a table in one of the rooms, R. J. Lamoreux, now clerk of Justice Caldwell's court, concealed in a corner and the room left to all appearances abandoned. Sanguinetti entered the room in the course of an hour or so and appropriated its contents, amounting to $1.15. He had no sooner done so than Lamoreux placed him under arrest.
Upon this showing the culprit was tried and convicted September 8, the only witness against him being Lamoreux.
When Sanguinetti was brought up for sentence yesterday morning, after a last appeal by his attorney, Judge Humes gave an extensive review of the case, saying he had had an interview with the prosecuting witness and had learned that the boy had been working at the hotel for eighteen months previous to his arrest without any compensation other than that derived from tips by the guests. The judge characterized this in itself as a mild form of larceny. As to the money purse, the court said that as it had been placed there for the purpose of being stolen, and had been so stolen, there was no real larceny in Sanguinetti's act, as he understood it. Therefore, he would impose an extremely light sentence.
On hearing this statement of the case, Attorney Robert H. Lindsay, who was in the court room, drew up a petition for Sanguinetti's pardon, addressed to Gov. McGraw. The petition was signed by nearly every attorney present, as follows: C. Gilman, E. C. Hughes, Robert Lindsay, John E. Humphries, Will H. Thompson, Clise A. King, Byers, McKelwain & Byers, Bostwick, Kelleher & Emory, Bott & Shipley, L. K. Gowlin, C. S. Preston, G. R. Carlisle, A. W. Hastie, H. H. Hastings, J. J. Casey, J. C. Whitlock, Winsor, Bash & Morris, Westling & Westling, Coleman & Charles F. Fehback.
The petition was indorsed by Judge Humes, and thereupon Mr. Lindsay hunted up Gov. McGraw, presented the paper and stated the facts. The governor said he would obtain the pardon just as soon as his secretary could prepare the papers, which will be within a few days.
No prisoners will be taken to Walla Walla for a week or so, and the fortunate Sanguinetti will never wear the convict's stripes.
“The judge characterized this in itself as a mild form of larceny.”
In 1894, a Seattle judge recognized that unpaid labor was its own form of theft. Today, wage theft and exploitation in the service industry remain rampant, often hidden behind tips and informal arrangements. Sanguinetti's story—a trapped worker vindicated by a sympathetic judge—resonates in a city still wrestling with income inequality and worker protections.
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