81 Neb. 133 | Neb. | 1908
Olin M. Eoutzahn and William'A. Bentley were tried in the district court for Lancaster county on an information describing them as the chief of police and the city detective (officers of the city of Lincoln, respectively), and charging them with the crime of blackmail by form-. ing a conspiracy to levy and collect certain sums of money from one. Dolly Palmer, the keeper of a house of prostitution in that city, by means of threats of prosecution, coupled with an agreement for protection from arrests, the privilege of conducting her unlawful business, and selling beer to frequenters of her said house. It was also alleged in the information that the said conspiracy, and the agreement in pursuance thereof, was carried out by securing, collecting and obtaining from the prosecutrix the sum of $50 a month from and including the month of September, 1904, to and including the month of April, 1905. The trial resulted in an acquittal, and the state has
In the case at bar the defendants, two public officers, Avhose duty it was to enforce the law, were charged with conspiring together and adopting a general plan or scheme of holding up the prosecuting witness, a supposed violator of the Iuav, and obtaining from her by blackmail, or, as the testimony tended to show, by bribery, certain sums of
We are therefore of opinion that the evidence offered falls within the exception to the general rule above stated, that the district court erred in excluding it, and the state’s second exception is sustained. -
Judgment accordingly.