The Judge Escapes the Legislature—For Now
Damning reports on Judge W. W. Langhorne reach the House, but lawmakers postpone impeachment and hand the case to the Supreme Court.
OLYMPIA, March 11.—Special.—The house today indefinitely postponed all matters before it leading to impeachment of Judge W. W. Langhorne, superior judge of Lewis, Pacific and Wahkiakum counties, by a vote of 53 yeas to 32 nays. It then passed by an almost unanimous vote Williams' bill to provide for the trial of all officers of the state liable to impeachment by the supreme court. The trial of Judge Langhorne is in all probability only postponed for a time, as the reports of the legislative committee investigating charges of impeachment are very damaging to his official record. The supreme court will probably take the matter up in the near future. The house committee, consisting of Bull of Whitman, chairman; Halteman of Jefferson, Goddard of King, J. C. Taylor of Pierce and Cheetham of Whitman, filed two reports with the house this afternoon. Report No. 1 is signed by Halteman and Goddard, and is particularly severe on the judge. Report No. 2 is signed by Bull and Taylor, and while it is not as severe, anything but exonerates the judge. Cheetham was not present at the investigation and asked to be excused from signing either report. As soon as the reports were read in the house Goddard moved the adoption of report No. 1. Taylor moved that No. 2 be substituted. An interesting debate followed. Nims did not believe in taking up the time of the session with impeachment trials. Other members, particularly the populists, shared this opinion. Milroy of Yakima made a stirring speech in favor of an impeachment trial if the charges warranted. Scobey, believing the members could not conscientiously vote on the question of adopting either report without more information, and also that valuable time was being wasted, moved to indefinitely postpone the whole business. The motion prevailed, the Populists voting with the affirmative as a unit. Williams of King then moved to suspend the rules and at once take up the bill to authorize all impeachment trials to be brought before the supreme court. This bill then passed.
“The trial of Judge Langhorne is in all probability only postponed for a time.”
Legislators eager to avoid a messy impeachment trial shifted the ultimate judgment to the courts—a move that will look familiar wherever officials face misconduct allegations. The Langhorne case shows how procedural delays can be both a shield and a postponement, not a final verdict.
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