A Judicial Feud Erupts in Whitman County
A former prosecutor and a sitting judge trade public accusations of deceit, perjury, and misconduct involving a prisoner and a local jail scandal.
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.
In response to serious criminal charges leveled by Judge McDonald against J. E. Nessly, former prosecuting attorney J. W. Mathews has issued a public rebuttal. Judge McDonald alleged that Nessly committed misconduct while serving as jailer, involving a female prisoner named Mary McDonald. Mathews, acting as former prosecutor, dismissed these charges as a retaliatory scheme to blacken Nessly's character, noting that the only evidence was the word of a notorious criminal, H. K. James. Nessly himself denied the accusations as a 'physical impossibility,' stating that he only granted the woman access to hot water in the corridor in broad daylight. Judge McDonald has fired back, asserting that Mathews previously admitted the guilt of Nessly but claimed it was impossible to secure a conviction, and suggesting that political expediency—specifically the fear of losing an election—kept the matter from trial. The debate continues to roil local legal circles as the current prosecutor promises an investigation.
“I believed then, as I believe now, that the whole thing was part of a scheme to blacken Nessly's character—other schemes having failed.”
This bitter public spat between a judge and a prosecutor highlights a perennial issue in local civic life: the difficulty of maintaining institutional accountability when internal feuds and political ambitions cloud the pursuit of justice. The public airing of grievances through the press mirrors how modern community disputes often bypass traditional reporting for public social platforms, yet the core tension—who polices the police and the judiciary—remains an unresolved civic struggle.
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