104 Wash. 278 | Wash. | 1918
On January 23, 1918, a complaint was filed with the secretary of the state board of law examiners charging Edgar Gr. Mills, a duly admitted attorney under the laws of this state, with unprofessional conduct as a member of the bar of this court, because of his action in connection with a certain attempt at blackmail.
It appears that one F. J. Richards, who had long been employed as the manager of the Thompson Hotel Company of Lincoln, Nebraska, had acquired certain stock in that company, partly paid for, upon his interest in which he fixed a value of $24,000. Mr. Thompson was the holder of a majority of the stock of the. hotel company, and there appears to have been no market value for the minority stock. Mr. Richards, evidently desiring to sever his connection with the hotel company in order to take employment as business manager with one Dr. Dechmann, who operated a sanitarium on Lake Crescent, in Clallam county, this state, desired to dispose of his stock in the hotel company at what he considered its value, and conceived the idea that he could not do so to any
The constitutional questions raised by the defendant are disposed of against his contentions in In re Bruen, 102 Wash. 472, 172 Pac. 1152, and need not be here considered. The other technical objections
The defendant in his brief says:
“You cannot convict or disbar unless it is shown that the acts were knowingly done, and the evidence is undisputed that Mills did not know the contents of the package and there is no finding that he did, and no evidence to that effect and no ground for an impartial mind to so conclude.”
We quite agree with and adopt the legal conclusion that the acts must be shown to have been knowingly done in order to justify disbarment; but as to the evidence, we are reluctantly forced to take the opposite view. There was introduced in evidence two written statements, each signed by Edgar G-. Mills (Exhibits 4 and 5), purporting to cover the facts in this case; and according to the testimony, each of such exhibits was carefully read and corrected by Mr. Mills before he affixed his signature. Exhibit 4 was made at the time of the institution of a criminal prosecution for blackmail against Richards, Dechmann and Mills, and exhibit 5 was made some months later after Richards and Dechmann had been tried on the charge and Mr. Mills had testified in both trials as to the facts within his knowledge. The two statements do not differ in effect, though exhibit 5 goes more into detail; and while it may unduly extend this opinion, yet to avoid the possibility of its being thought or said that any evidence has been torn from its context to alter or affect its convincing force, we feel obliged to quote exhibit 5 in full, which is as follows:
“State of Washington,
Plaintiff,
v. Statement of
“Frank J. Eichards and Edgar Gf. Mills.
“Louis Dechmann,
Defendant. .
“November 23rd, 1916, by Mr. S. C. Eose:
“Q. Now, then, Mr. Mills if you will say — along the same line as your testimony in this proceeding of the state against Dechmann — when was the first conversation that you had' with Dr. Dechmann that had anything to do with this Eichards proposition? A. On or about the first part of June, 1916. Q. Then what was that? A. That was when I told the doctor that I was going to try and go over Trumbull’s head and get a hold of Thompson and see if we could not settle up this water dispute and the doctor then said to me, ‘Wait a while, Eichards has some plan, let us see what that is and what he can do before you do anything.’ Q. Did he say what the plan that Eichards had would be calculated to do, or what Eichards thought it would do, or what it would settle up ? A. He said that Eichards had some plan that he thought he could settle up everything. I then wrote Eichards a letter about the Burkhardt title, and in that was a short paragraph in which I said the doctor said to me that you have said to him that you have some plan whereby you expect to effect a settlement of all of the doctor’s trouble with Thompson. I said that conditions were getting into a bad shape as far as the doctor was concerned, that I had to make frequent trips to Port Angeles and Lake Crescent and that they were expensive and that something drastic would have to be done soon. I think I got a reply to that, I am not sure about it though, that he was going to be in Seattle before long; he made no reference to any plan, but that was the answer to that letter. He did answer in regard to the Burkhardt title. Q. Had you met Eichards up to this time?
“Q. Did Dechmann, prior to the time that he called Richards into your conversation, did he before say to you in Richards’ absence, while Richards was away, that Richards wanted you to look up the law of blackmail? A. My recollection is that he said that Richards was going to get up a statement and wanted me to blue-pencil it and bring it within the law of blackmail. Q. Then you were up to the point where you had looked up the law during several days- A. Well, during the morning the doctor telephoned down and made an appointment for Friday of that week at 3 o’clock. I remember that because it is on a calendar that I have in my office. Q. That is, Doctor Dechmann called you up? A. Tes, and they came into my small office there. Q. By they you mean Richards and Dechmann? A. Tes, Richards was sitting right there at the end of my desk and Dechmann over at the corner by the bookcases. Richards had with him the eight or nine pages of typewritten stuff that is now incorporated in state’s Exhibit A. Q. That was the first eight or nine pages, was it? A. Tes, now he may have rewrote it, but it is practically the same, I think probably verbatim. He had another paper, his ‘Bully of Natches,’ and he went on to tell how he was going to match that up with the Bully of Nebraska or Lincoln. Q. Did he make a statement of what he proposed to allege or say in his so-called Bully of Nebraska, that is, did he make a statement of what he was going to say about Thompson? A. He stated in detail just as I stated on the stand concerning the allegation of stealing his transportation coming from Michigan to Nebraska, and the lantern incident of beating the young
“Q. Now, what advice, if any, did you give them as to this proposition? A. I read them first the statute on the law of blackmail, and also read them the statute on the law of extortion, comparing the difference between the two, and I read a lot of decisions I had, just what ones I do not remember, my desk was piled up a couple of feet deep, that is my way of briefing a case as I find one case I lay it open on my desk. Q. So that you have just kind of an endless chain? A. Yes, I never finish a brief. I told them that the law of blackmail under our statutes was very strict, and that to put up the accusations, or in brief, the article that he had suggested, as a sort of history of Thompson’s life, accompanied with threats, would be blackmail.
“Q. When was the next time that you met either Richards or Dechmann? A. The next Sunday night
“Q. Now, was all of this conversation that you have just spoken of between you and Eichards, touching the delivery of the package to Thompson and the wiring to Eichards, in the presence and hearing of Dechmann? A. It was in the presence and hearing of Dechmann, Mrs. Dechmann and Miss Schuetz and myself. Q. Was it all while you were grouped about the table? A. Yes, when we left the table he went one way to the train and I the other to the boat. Q. That is, he went to the train and you to the boat? A. Yes. Q. Then did you deliver the package to Thompson? A. I did. I went to Thompson’s wharf on the morning of the 20th of July. I told Hans to get out his launch. Q. Where were you stopping? A. At Qui Si Sana. I had been there a couple of days, and inspected the spring and waterworks and interviewed some witnesses in regard to the community interests of the Burkhardts and the injunction suit against Thompson and Trumbull. Q. Who else, if any, of the Dechmanns were at Qui Si Sana át any time during the couple of days that you say you were there?. A. A married daughter, Mrs. Abernethy, with her two children and the other two girls and the three boys. Q. Including, of course, Hans, of whom you have spoken? A. Yes. Q. Then Hans drove the launch over to the Thompson dock? A. Yes, we swung around and I threw the package over on the wharf. Thompson was there carrying his boy, and I said, ‘ Here is a package that Eichards wanted me to deliver to you personally.’ He invited me to come in and asked me if I would not like to look over the grounds, and I told him that I might come back later in the
* * (Signed) Edgar G. Mills. ’ ’ “State of Washington, ¡
“ County of King.
“I, Edgar G. Mills, being first duly sworn, on oath say: That I am the same Edgar G. Mills referred to in the foregoing statement and who made the answers to the questions propounded to me by Mr. S. C. Rose, prosecuting attorney of Clallam county, Washington, and that the answers contained in said statement were made by me as therein contained to such questions propounded by Mr. Rose; that I made such answers freely and voluntarily and of my own will. That I have read carefully said statement as herein contained and the whole thereof, and each of the questions with answers thereto as the same is contained in the annexed statement, and that the said answers are true answers to the questions propounded, respectively, and that said statement as a whole constitutes a true statement of the facts, matters and things therein referred to.
“(Signed) Edgar G. Mills.
“Subscribed and sworn to before me this 5th day of January, A. D. 1917.
“(Signed) J. William.Hoar,
“Notary Public in and for the State of Washington, residing at Seattle.
“ (Notarial Seal.) ”
That the true facts are to be drawn from this evidence is shown by the statement of defendant’s counsel at the close of the complainant’s case:
‘•I will say that I have availed myself of the time so graciously given me by the board to go through the matters introduced in evidence, and it is my opinion, and I so advised Mr. Mills, we had nothing to enlighten the board on at all. The matters are all here in evidence. I do not think anything Mr. Mills may say would shed any light upon this phase of this unfortunate source (course)1 of events. We have nothing to introduce. ’ ’
What are the true facts applicable to the points in issue? It seems clear to us that Mr. Mills knew before he ever met Mr. Richards that Richards had some plan for obtaining a settlement with Thompson outside of the courts (Richards not being a lawyer), which he and Dr. Dechmann thought would be more effective than legal procedure; that Mr. Mills became aware of the nature of this plan when he met Dr. Dechmann and Richards at the Women’s Exchange in Seattle, and was informed that he was to look up the law of blackmail, and was to examine and blue-pencil a state
“I do not want any of the Dechmanns to have anything to do with this, because if I ever do have a settlement with Thompson, this might aggravate it.”
Then Mr. Mills reached over and received the two packages from Richards, and said:
“Now I do not know what is in this, and I do not want to know, and I won’t know. I am simply going to act as a messenger boy . . .”
If ever there was a self-serving declaration made, this on its face, in the light of the attendant circumstances, was one. If Mr. Mills had for one moment believed that the purpose to blackmail had been abandoned; would he not have inquired as to the contents of the package and sought to know what of the filthy charges which had been minutely detailed to him had been eliminated? Would he have warned the Dechmanns to keep out of it? Would he have made the elaborate self-serving declaration of lack' of knowledge ? What innocent man, engaged in an innocent undertaking, would think of proclaiming such a lack of knowledge, and such an intention to remain ignorant? We think the utmost of human credulity could not justify the answer to these questions for which Mr. Mills contends, and that a preponderance of the evidence establishes the fact that Mr. Mills accepted the package and agreed to, and did, deliver it to Mr. Thompson, well knowing what the contents were. That this is so is further evidenced by the fact that the second package containing the duplicate of the papers, afterwards given to Thompson, was addressed to Dr. Dechmann, and though Dechmann was actually there present, it was not delivered to him, but to Mr. Mills, with the evident purpose that he, Mills, might, if he cared to,
“I am going to be in Lincoln by Friday, July 21st, and if on that day I do not receive through Mr. Mullen, payment in full for my stock as outlined heretofore, and the assurance from you by wire that papers sent you for signature, are on the way, I will withdraw my offer of settlement and proceed to vindicate Dr. Dechmann by the publishing of the article enclosed herewith, which will go to press on Saturday, the 22nd, and be mailed out all over the world not later than the following Monday.”
That Mr. Mills had knowledge of this demand in substance, as well as of the contents of the package generally, is further conclusively established by the care taken by Mr. Mills to deliver the package to Thompson at the exact day and hour directed by Richards, and thereafter immediately telegraphing Richards that the delivery had been made at the appointed time. No argument is necessary to convince the unbiased that a mere messenger boy, without knowledge of the contents of the package and the purpose sought to be accomplished, would have taken the pains and trouble necessary to relay- a telegram by telephone with any such particularity. While we would most gladly have found otherwise, if the facts would have warranted, and have thus avoided the stern duty which now is before us, yet, under the undisputed evidence in this record, we must find that the defendant’s statement, as a whole, over-rides his self-serving declaration of
‘ ‘ Sec. 2613. Blackmail. — Every person who, with intent thereby to extort or gain any money or other property or to compel or induce another to make, subscribe, execute, alter or destroy any valuable security or instrument or writing affecting or intending to affect any cause of action or defense, or any property, or to influence, the action of any public officer, or to do or abet or procure any illegal or wrongful act, shall threaten directly or indirectly—
“ (1) To accuse any person of a crime; or
“(2) To do any injury to any person or to any property; or
“(3) To publish or connive at publishing any libel; or
“(4) To expose or impute to any person any deformity or disgrace; or
“(5) To expose any secret.
Shall be punished by imprisonment in the state penitentiary for not more than five years or by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one year, or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or by both fine and imprisonment.”
“Sec. 2007. Distinctions Relating to Accessory Abolished. — No distinction shall exist between an accessory before the fact and a principal, or between principals in the first and second degree, and all persons concerned in the commission of an offense, whether they directly counsel the act constituting the offense, or counsel, aid and abet its commission, though not present, shall hereafter be indicted, tried and punished as principals.”
In one thing we agree with the defendant: In his brief, referring to the recommendation of suspension made by the state board of law examiners, he says:
“A suspension of one year can have no more effect on his business than has already been produced by this*299 case. Defendant asks no such clemency as appears to be suggested by this board. Mills either knew the contents of the packages or did not know. If it is proven under the evidence that be knew, disbar him permanently. ’ ’
Mr. Mills is a man of mature years, with a long experience as a practicing attorney. Youth, inexperience, sudden temptation, and like excuses do not apply, as be himself has said. And, upon the evidence, it becomes our duty to direct that be be permanently disbarred and bis name stricken from the rolls.
It is so ordered.