100 years ago in Spokane: An attorney now on trial for perjury broke down in tears after his wife testified about a damning ‘jollification party’

Attorney Fred C. Robertson broke down in tears on the witness stand and, between sobs, said to the judge, “I am sick. May we have a recess?”

A recess was granted, and he was then allowed to lie down in the judge’s chambers. This put an end to his testimony. Yet earlier, his wife had testified that she hosted a “jollification party” in her home the night that Maurice Codd was acquitted. Robertson was one of Codd’s attorneys and was now a defendant in the subornation of perjury trial.

This overshadowed the other main event in the case, the testimony of James Codd, the brother of Maurice Codd. The prosecutor on cross-examination asked James Codd if he had ever referred to Frank Brinton as “the boy that Maurice threw over the railing.”

A defense attorney objected, calling it a “trick on the part of the state,” to which the prosecutor replied that these were “maniacal statements.”

“Don’t you call me a maniac,” the defense attorney said.

The judge had to repeatedly rap his gavel.

“Gentlemen, did you hear me rap?” he said. “If this argument is not stopped, I’ll have to fine you men.”

After the day’s proceedings, the newspaper men covering the trial purchased a large carpenter’s mallet and presented it to the judge as a gavel, in a joking reference to “the great difficulty he has had in handling the case.”

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1779: Benedict Arnold is court-martialed for improper conduct.