100 years ago in Spokane: Defense’s latest tactics in Frank Brinton murder trial offended police officer who took stand

The Maurice P. Codd murder trial entered its second week and featured testimony from Spokane police officer C.E. Wagner, who witnessed the death of Fort Wright soldier Frank Brinton.

Wagner said he was approaching Codd and Brinton, who were tussling, when Codd rushed Brinton and “threw him over the railing, to the floor 22 feet below.”

This appeared to be damaging to the defense, but Codd’s attorneys immediately went on the attack.

“Officer Wagner, is it not a fact that you have been called before a commission for failure to stop this accident that happened in the Granite Building?” asked a defense lawyer.

Wagner hotly denied this. Then the defense attorney accused him of “hiding until Codd had done something so you could arrest him?”

Wagener denied that as well.

The defense attorneys also implied, through their questions to witnesses, that Granite Building was a house of ill fame and the soldiers were there for that reason. The prosecutors successfully objected to this line of questioning.

Also on this day

(From the Associated Press)

1912: The British liner RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton, England, on its ill-fated maiden voyage.

2005: Tiger Woods won his fourth Masters with a spectacular finish of birdies and bogeys.

2012: Rick Santorum quit the presidential race, clearing the way for Mitt Romney to claim the Republican nomination.

2019: Scientists released the first image ever made of a black hole.