Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1899 — A Combination of Errors. [ARTICLE]

A Combination of Errors.

Probably the most interesting case tried in court this week was that of the State vs JohnTE. Alter, .gx-county surveyor, for perjury in swearing to a false claim before the commissioners of Jasper county and for which offense he was indicted by the grand jury in December. The indictment was quashed as faulty, and an affidavit and information was then filed, but nothing further done with the case until this term. The facts in this case are familiar to most of the readers of The Democrat. The evidence introduced by the state showed that the work for which Mr. Alter filed the claim and swore to its correctness, was never done, that Mr. Jessen went out and posted some notices for cleaning an allotment on the Coates ditch on Oct. 8, that Mr. Alter asked him to go, and that on returning he went to Mr. Alter and the latter told him to go to the county auditor and get his pay or put in a claim for same. This Mr. Jessen did, the claim being SI.BO, and the same was taxed up against the landowner as taxes and in due time paid to Mr. Jessen by the county treasurer. This work was One in which the county surveyor had nothing to do with, except, on request of the auditor, he found a party to post the notices, the work coming under the duties of the auditor’s office, and not the surveyor. It was shown that the warrant was issued to Mr. Alter himself and that it was paid by the county treasurer on Dec. 22,1898. (When the writer called Upon Treasurer Gwin about Feb. 1, to see if this warrant had ever been paid, it could not be found, but Mr. Gwin produced the warrant in court all right.) Mr. Alter received the money but had never told Mr. Jessen that he had some money for him, nor had he done so to this day. Neither had he turned it back to the county treasury on finding that Mr. Jessen had received his pay for the work for which be filed the claim.

The defense took the ground that the whole thing from beginning to end was a mistake; that Mr. Alter made a mistake in filing the bill; that he made a mistake in swearing that the alleged services had never been paid for; that he made a mistake in collecting the money on the order, as he didn’t know what it was for; that the auditor made a mistake in entering the claim on the docket in the name of J. E. Alter instead of John H. Jessen; that the commissioners who examined the claim failed to notice that it purported that Jasper county owed John H. Jessen, and not J. E. Alter the amount of the bill, and allowed it in Mr. Alter’s name; that another mistake was made in the auditor’s entering it on the commissioners’ record in Mr. Alter’s name instead of that of John H. Jessen; that the auditor also made a mistake in issuing the warrant to Mr. Alter instead of Mr. Jessen, and that Mr. Alter made a mistake in not observing that he had been paid the amount of the claim which he alleged was due Mr. Jessen. In fact no such series of “mistakes’, was ever before aired in court as occured in this case—in the opinion of the defense. The state attempted to show that Mr. Alter had been in the habit of employing people to work for him at a certain price and had then charged the county a very different and much higher price, and had witnesses present for this purpose, but the evidence was not admitted, as it bad no bearing on this particular case. In summing up the case Mr. Mills opened for the state and made an eloquent plea for the prisoner. Frank Foltz for the defense followed and told the jury how it was all a mistake, and that mistakes were very apt to occur even among county officers, etc., and asked that the prisoner be acquitted. / Prosecutor Chizum closed the argument for the state and made a very able plea. He stated that it was not the small amount involved that should be taken into consideration; that a like amount here and a like amount there soon run up into hundreds of dollars, and the jury should give the evidence the same weight they would

were it a larger sum. Then followed the Judge’s instructions which were quite lengthy, and the case went to the jury. The least penalty that could be meted out, had the jury returned a verdict of guilty, was two years in the penitentiary. After being out one hour and fifteen minutes, they agreed on a verdict acquitting him of the charge. They were quite badly divided on the case for some time, it is said.