Former Supreme Court Justice Arrested for Embezzlement
A high-profile scandal hits the local legal scene as a former Supreme Court judge faces charges involving thousands of dollars in missing railway funds.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Charged with embezzling $9,200 from the Great Northern Railway, Judge M.J. Gordon, formerly on the supreme bench of the state and later attorney for the Great Northern, was arrested here last night and this afternoon went back to Spokane to face the charge in court. Ever since the investigation of the Bar Association in the case of Judge Root, who was mixed up with Judge Gordon in some indiscretions, there have been rumors floating around that Judge Gordon might have trouble ahead. The climax was reached last night when Deputy Sheriff Clarence Long of Spokane appeared in this city and, with Deputy Sheriff H.J. Doten, went to the Kellogg apartments where Judge Gordon was making his home and placed him under arrest. The charge grew out of a damage case against the Great Northern Railway last May. James Sparrow in the Spokane superior court got a judgment against the company for $9,200. Judge Gordon drew on the company and, it is alleged, cashed the draft, at the same time securing the endorsements of the attorneys for Sparrow by giving them a stipulation that the money would be paid by August 1, 1908. The money was not paid and the stipulation was filed in court; Attorney Gilman for the company then paid it into court for Sparrow, thus making a double payment. Judge Gordon has not returned the $9,200.
“I do not care to make any statement, except that I have committed no crime.”
Public corruption and judicial ethics scandals involving railway money were major drivers of early 20th-century civic distrust in the Northwest. This case highlights how prominent legal figures often navigated the blurred lines between corporate interests and the public bench, a tension that remains a staple of political discourse today.
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