The Judge on Trial
A defendant accuses a Whitman County judge of coercion, bribery, and witness tampering in a desperate bid to clear his name.
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.
On the complaint sworn out by R. E. Matlock, J. E. Nessly was brought to trial on Judge McDonald's charge of 'rape by proxy.' When the trial began, J. K. Hanna, attorney for Nessly, attempted to file an affidavit charging that Judge William McDonald was biased and prejudiced. The Judge threatened to hold Hanna in contempt if he persisted, but Clerk Renfrew accepted the document. The filing alleges that for months, Judge McDonald had been personally engaged in an effort to get various persons—including inmates held in the county jail—to testify against Nessly. The document claims the Judge offered prisoners their freedom in exchange for fabricated testimony against Nessly, while threatening those who refused to lie with long penitentiary sentences. The defendant also alleged the Judge sought to leverage a gubernatorial pardon for a convict named Win Keech to force testimony, and attempted to coerce a man named William Brooks by vacating his previous guilty plea if he would return to Colfax to testify against Nessly. The defense concluded by requesting that a different magistrate hear the case, citing the Judge's deep personal animus.
“Judge, don't try to force the boy to testify to a lie.”
This 1900 report on judicial misconduct highlights the perpetual tension between local power structures and the demand for impartial justice. Today's public scrutiny of the criminal legal system in Washington continues to center on the same questions of whether authorities are incentivizing 'truth' through coercion or providing the resources for a fair defense.
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