The Trial of the Hanford Flyer
A young man accused of illegal duck hunting from a steamboat walks free after a contentious court battle.
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.
Creston Brown, son of the captain of the Hanford Flyer, was acquitted in Justice Staser’s court Tuesday of violating state game laws. He had been accused by County Game Warden O’Connell of shooting ducks on the Columbia River near Richland on November 9. While witnesses for the prosecution claimed to hear shots and see the steamboat alter course to recover game, passengers testified in Brown's defense that no guns were fired and no shots were heard. The case concludes with the acquittal of the defendant.
“Passengers on the boat that day testified that no shots had been fired and that defendant had no gun.”
Conflicts between recreational hunters and commercial river traffic are a long-standing tradition in the Tri-Cities. The legal defense of local boat captains against state game wardens echoes modern tensions regarding river access and conservation regulation.
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