Ex parte Gould

In an action pending in the superior court in and for the county of Tuba, wherein the county of Sacramento is plaintiff, and the petitioner one of the defendants, a writ of injunction was served upon the defendant, requiring lmn to refrain from doing certain acts therein specified. While this writ was in full force the petitioner was charged before said court with having violated its terms, and was ordered to show cause why he should not be adjudged guilty of contempt therefor. Upon the hearing of this charge, the court required the petitioner to be sworn as a witness, to which he objected upon the ground that he could not be compelled to be a witness against himself in the proceedings, for the reason that they were of a criminal nature. The court, however, overruled his objection and required him to be sworn as a witness, and he, acting under the advice of his counsel, still declining and refusing to be sworn for the aforesaid reason, the court adjudged him guilty of contempt and committed him to the county jail, there to remain until he should purge himself of said contempt by consenting to be sworn as a witness in said case, and to testify therein.

Article I., section 13 of…