JUDGE MEYMOTT.

Dunstan Times, Issue 947, 11 June 1880, Page 3

JUDGE ME YMOTT.

The following telegram from Gunnedah, and published in the Sydney papers lately, may prove of interest: — The quarter sessions commenced hero on Wednesday last, with a calendar of fourteen cases. Judge Meymott presided. In the first case, against a man named King, the judge told the jury, when they hesitated about the verdict, not to make mountains out of molehills ; the case was as plain as the nose on his face, and that if they retired, he would leave them locked up until 3 o’clock in the evening ; this was at 11 o’clock in the morning. On Thursday, a woman named Annie Lehimkuhi was charged with stealing a tarpaulin, and was defended by Mr Abbott. The jury, not being able to agree in their verdict, were locked np; at eight o’clock at night the judge called them into Court, when they stated that they were eleven to one. The judge said he knew who the ono was who wished to acquit, and hinted that he did so owing to improper relations between tha

prisoner and the juryman. This the juryman denied, and it then turned out that the jury were—eleven for an acquittal, and one for a conviction. The judge then discharged the jury, and, in opposition to the crown prosecutor, admitted the prisoner, a married woman, to bail in her own recognisances. On Friday, a lad named Dunn was tried for an assault, the prisoner being defended by Mr Abbott. The jury brought in a verdict of not guilty. The judge at once ordered the clerk of the peace not to record their verdict, and told the jury to re-consider the same. This they refused to do, and His Honour had to accept their verdict, doing so in most uncomplimentary remarks to the jury and the attorney for the defence.