United States ex rel Flynn v. Fuellhart

• Decision Date: 14 February 1901
• Citation: 106 F. 911
• Parties: UNITED STATES ex rel. FLYNN et al. v. FUELLHART, Sheriff.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Pennsylvania

106 F. 911

UNITED STATES ex rel. FLYNN et al. v. FUELLHART, Sheriff.

United States Circuit Court, W.D. Pennsylvania.

February 14, 1901

D. M Miller, Asst. U.S. Atty., for relators.

C George Olmstead, for respondent.

ACHESON Circuit Judge.

Upon the petition of William J. Flynn and Thomas F. Berriman agents of the secret-service division of the treasury department of the United States, who were restrained of their liberty by, and were in the custody of, John H. Fuellhart sheriff of Warren county, Pa., the writ of habeas corpus here was issued under the authority conferred by sections 751-753 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, and the case has been heard by the court, and is now to be disposed of agreeably to the provisions of section 761, which enacts:

'The court, or justice, or judge shall proceed in a summary way to determine the facts of the case, by hearing the testimony and arguments, and thereupon to dispose of the party as law and justice require.'

It appears from the sheriff's return to the writ of habeas corpus, and otherwise, that the petitioners were in the custody of the sheriff by virtue of process issued out of the court of quarter sessions of Warren county, Pa., based on two indictments found in that court at No. 17 and No. 18, December sessions, 1900; one charging the petitioners with assault and battery upon the person of one John B. Bennett, and the other charging them with malicious mischief with respect to his property. Each of these two criminal proceedings in each of them. At the hearing before this court the following formal admission was entered of record:

'It is admitted that the charge of assault and battery and malicious mischief against William J. Flynn and Thomas F. Berriman, upon which indictments were found against them at No. 17 and No. 18, December sessions, 1900, in the quarter sessions court of Warren county, Pennsylvania, grew out of the acts of the said officers in their searching the house of John B. Bennett, arresting and conveying him to the United States commissioner (said officers acting in conjunction with W. S. Blair, the United States deputy marshal).'

The facts, as clearly shown by the evidence, are these: The petitioners are, and on the 1st day of October, 1900, were duly and lawfully appointed agents of the secret-service division of the treasury department of the United States, assigned to duty in the Western district of Pennsylvania, of which Warren county is part. On the day last named the petitioners, in the discharge of their official duties as such agents, in company with W. S. Blair, a deputy United States marshal for said district, who had a lawful warrant for the arrest of one John Henderson upon a charge of making and passing counterfeit coins of the United States, visited the dwelling house of said John B. Bennett, in Warren county, where they were informed Henderson was abiding. The three officers entered the house through the doorways without any violence. Bennett was told the purpose of their visit. The only inmates of the house were Bennett, his wife, and one Hyde. Bennett immediately and hurriedly tried to reach a shelf above an inside door, with the evident purpose of removing something from the shelf, but failed. He then hastened upstairs, and was there seen by the officers pouring a fluid from a bottle into an open space between the weather boarding and the inside plastering of the house. Investigation then made showed that this fluid was cyanide of potassium, which is commonly used by counterfeiters in silver plating. Upon his return downstairs Bennett was observed to hand something to his wife, which she attempted to conceal, but upon rising from her chair the officers noticed on the seat thereof a counterfeit dollar, not completely finished. Upon being asked at the time if he had any explanation to give as to this counterfeit dollar, Bennett said he had none, and told his wife not to say anything. A 25-cent counterfeit coin in an unfinished state was found in the pocket of Hyde, who stated to one of the officers that Bennett had put it there. Lying on the ground outside the house was found a counterfeit half dollar. On the shelf which Bennett had tried to reach the officers found about one-half pound of cyanide of potassium and a bottle of nitric acid. This latter substance, like the former, is of common use in making counterfeit coin. In the pockets of an overcoat hanging in the kitchen were found a bottle of nitric acid and a small tin of cyanide of potassium. Bennett and Hyde each denied ownership of this coat, but afterwards Hyde stated it was his. Some plaster of Paris in dry form, in a bag, was found in the house. Out of this substance counterfeiters habitually make their molds. In the pantry was found what had evidently been a plaster of Paris mold, but the impression had been removed. In the same place was found a tin of copperas in crystal...