A Quack, a $125 Bill, and a Prosecution That Cost the County More Than It Recovered
A Thurston County letter-writer asks why commissioners and the county attorney spent the public's money to convict an irregular doctor over a small bill — and got nothing back.
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.
The Minkler trial is over and has cost the taxpayers of the county a good round sum. Three county commissioners, as business men, and a county attorney, as their legal adviser, owe the people a lengthy and elaborate explanation for instituting this prosecution. For several months Dr. Minkler had a bill before the commissioners for several hundred dollars. The board finally allowed him $125. Several months afterward they discovered that the physio-medico man had lied to them, and, urged on by rival physicians, the county attorney commenced a criminal prosecution against Minkler on the charge of obtaining money under false pretenses. The trial establishes the fact that Minkler lied to the board, but that he did so to obtain what was his due. As a lawyer the county attorney should have known whether his evidence was sufficient to convict, and as business men the commissioners should have considered that, though they might send Dr. Minkler to the penitentiary, the county would not recover its $125. — COUNTY TAX PAYER.
“Though they might send Dr. Minkler to the penitentiary, the county would not recover its $125.”
A ratepayer's letter questioning why the county chased a small-dollar case at public expense reads like a modern op-ed about prosecutorial priorities. Then as now, the question is not only whether someone did wrong, but whether the public ever gets back the money it spends proving it.
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