Proceedings against Thomas Hughes and W. T. McCreight for contempt.
The respondent was attached upon an affidavit and information made by W. B. Childers, a member of a committee appointed by this court, to prepare and prosecute charges against Thomas B. Catron and Charles A. Spiess for alleged unprofessional conduct in the trial of the case of the territory of New Mexico against Francisco Gonzales y Borrego et al., for the murder of Francisco Chavez, which was tried in the district court for the county of Santa Fé, in the month of May, 1895. Jacob H. Crist, the district attorney, represented the territory in the trial of that case. At the July, 1895, term of this court, the said Crist, as district attorney, filed his own affidavit and copies of portions of the testimony taken upon the trial of said cause, and also the affidavit of several other persons, in which it was alleged that the said T. B. Catron and Charles A. Spiess had been guilty of efforts to procure false affidavits from the witnesses and otherwise improperly affect the testimony of the witnesses in that case. Upon the filing of said affidavits by the said district attorney, this court appointed John P. Victory, A. A. Jones, W. B. Childers, S. B. Newcomb, and B. S. Rodey, all prominent members of the bar of this territory, to inquire into the alleged offenses, and to prepare and file proper charges against the said Catron and Spiess if, in their judgment, it should be deemed necessary, and present them to this court, and to procure such evidence as they thought proper, and submit the same to the court, in order that there might be a full investigation of the charges so made against the said respondents, Catron and Spiess.
After the committee had filed such charges, and the hearing upon same had been fixed by the court, while they were pending and undisposed of in this court, there was a publication in the Daily Citizen, a newspaper published at Albuquerque, in the county of Bernalillo, of an article nearly three columns in length, entitled “Is it Honesty or Partisanship?” The following are extracts from said article; “Last Sunday evening, Chief Justice Smith, of the supreme court of this territory, wired W. B. Childers that he intended to spend the night with him in this city. It has been reliably ascertained that the object of his visit to Albuquerque, outside of his own district, and away from Santa Fé, the seat of the supreme court, was to consult with Childers, one of the attorneys designated to ‘formulate’ charges against T. B. Catron, based on information in the nature of affidavits and copies of a part of the evidence in the 1st judicial district court, in the case for the murder of Chavez, presented by J. H. Crist. Judge Smith, notwithstanding the fact that he is a member of the supreme court, and as such one of the judges to hear and try such charges, has, contrary to all precedent, delicacy, and the ethics pertaining to the judicial action, descended from the high position which he should have commanded, so as to appear in the partisan effort to ruin the character of an attorney whose only crime is that he was, at the last election, selected by a majority of about 3,000 votes to represent New Mexico in congress. In his zeal to cripple the influence of Catron to aid New Mexico and her people, Judge Smith has made this visit to Albuquerque, and at the residence of Childers took up nearly the whole night in discussing the case and its merits. It is well understood that, prior to any action taken in the supreme court in this matter, Judge Smith also met and had a full consultation with Childers, Crist, and other attorneys, who were at enmity with Catron, in regard to the propriety and feasibility of pushing the cause against Catron; that it was there determined that it was necessary to push them for political and personal reasons; that Judge Smith would see that they were referred to a special committee of the bar, composed of a majority who would be hostile to Catron, either politically or personally, or both, but that it should be so done that it should be made to appear to the other members of the supreme court that it was intended to be nonpartisan. *** We do not desire or intend to reflect on the supreme court or any member of it, only to state the facts as we have heard them, for the information of the public. We do think, however, the action of Judge Smith was very reprehensible. He had no more occasion to consult with a member of that committee in advance than he had to become the prosecutor in that or any other cause which might come before him in the supreme court or the district court. He sits as a juror. Having taken an active part in advising in regard to the cause,-having manifested his prejudice, if we are correctly informed,-he is no longer qualified in that case. Yet, if appearances and reports are true, he has not demeaned himself as a fair, upright, and manly judge should have done. No judge having any regard for his office or for the esteem for his fellows, since the time of Bacon and Jeffreys, has ever allowed himself to be consulted or to take part in advising the course to be pursued in a given case. The management of causes, and the propriety of the course to be pursued, and the accusation to be presented in any case, should be left to the legal profession, and, in a case like this, to the Bar Association of New Mexico, of which Catron and Spiess are both members, and where such matters properly belong. It can scarcely be considered that Judge Smith has acted fairly and impartially in this cause if the facts as we learn them be true. The other members of that court should see that the judicial ermine is not dragged in the mud of politics and of personal enmity, and should promptly check any partisan zeal or political hostility which may be manifested in that cause if there be any display thereof. *** Why does the supreme court assume to take control and ignore the bar association, of which each member of the court is a member? Why is the grievance committee of that association, composed of such men as N. B. Field, George W. Knaebel, S. B. Newcomb, Frank Springer, and A. A. Jones, ignored? Are not these men capable of looking into the truth and reasonableness of the charges? These are men whose integrity, ability, and fairness cannot be questioned, unless it be by those who seek to perpetrate a wrong. It is no partisan committee. Three of its members are Democrats, and two Republicans. Two of them, Newcomb and Jones, have been placed on the committee to formulate these charges. But Field, Knaebel, and Springer have been shoved aside, Field being chairman. Instead of three such men as Field, Knaebel, and Springer, Victory, Childers, and Fiske, persons either politically or personally hostile to T. B. Catron, were placed on the committee. Why was this? Was it fair, or was it that they did not believe in the honesty, integrity, and fairness of Springer, Knaebel, and Field? Or was it, possibly, in order that the advocates of certain peculiar ideas should go upon the committee to besmirch the character of other members of the bar? We hope the latter is not the case. We believe it is not; but, if it be such, then to what low, contemptible, degraded, and insignificant place can the judiciary descend. *** The individual who penned or inspired that article, or both, and every one else who knows anything, knows the members of the supreme court individually never read over the alleged charges and annexed papers presented by Crist, nor have they heard them read over, but, without reading or hearing them read, referred them to the representation of some one of the committee, with instructions simply to formulate charges based thereon, but not to examine into the truth of the facts or the probability of their correctness. It is further well known that Catron's attorneys applied to the court on motion, and asked to have the charges investigated by the committee, and their powers enlarged for that purpose, so that they might determine whether there was any reasonable foundation for preferring charges. The supreme court refused to accede to this motion. That thereafter the committee itself applied to the court, and requested to be informed as to their duties, and most, if not all, of the committee stated that if they were required to examine into the facts of the charges, or do anything except to act ministerially in formulating charges upon the supposed facts before them, that they declined to act upon the committee. They were therefore informed by the court that they were to formulate charges upon the matters presented to them, and stand between the court and wrong. What that meant does not seem to be very clear. These facts, although done in private, with closed doors, none present but four members of the court and the committee, have reached the light of day. How can it be said that the court or any committee has in any manner passed upon the correctness of the charges or the possibility of sustaining them. No investigation has been made by either. Why were not these charges preferred in the district court, where the facts complained of are said to have happened, if at all, and that also before Judge Hamilton? *** We do not write these facts to influence the supreme court. We expect to be governed solely and entirely by the merits of the case. We do demand, however, that the case shall be tried according to law; that a proper weight should be given, in view of all the facts and surroundings, to the testimony of each witness. We do demand that politics shall be eliminated; that personal hostility and enmity shall be set aside, and nothing but the strictest kind of justice and honesty shall prevail.”
The information against said Hughes states that he and one W. T. McCreight are partners, under the name...
