In Error to the District Court of the United States for the Northern Division of the Western District of Washington.

Contempt proceedings by the United States, on relation of Elmer E. Todd, United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington, against E. D'. Kirk and another. From a judgment of conviction, defendants bring error.

On January 23, 1911, the United States attorney for the Western District of Washington, by petition, informed the United States District Court of that district that the plaintiffs in error had between January 16 and January 23, 1911, approached members of the venire of .jurors then in attendance upon said court in the interest of one C. D. Hillman, who had been indicted for violation of statutes of the United States, and whose trial was set before that court for January 31, 1911, with the intent corruptly to influence said members of the venire in behalf of said Hillman, and with the.promise and suggestion that they would be paid money in case they should be in favor of the said Hillman. Upon that petition the plaintiffs in error were, upon a hearing before the said District Court, adjudged guilty of contempt, and sentenced to imprisonment. In its judgment, the court found the facts as follows: “That heretofore, to wit, between the 1st and 23d day of January, 1911, the defendants E. D. Kirk and M. J. Webb were engaged in a conspiracy and plot to corrupt the jurors of this court in connection with the trial of the case of the United States of America vs. Clarence Dayton Hillman, which is now pending in this court and set for trial for January 31, 1911; that Charles McCoy, who is a member of said venire, was approached between the 1st and 23d day of January, 1911, by two persons unknown for the purpose of offering him money to influence his action in said cause if he were chosen as a trial juror; that Robert C. Van Horn, a member of said venire, was corruptly approached between the two dates last aforesaid by said E. D. Kirk and M. J. Webb for the purpose of influencing his action in the event he should be chosen as a trial juror in said cause, and that promises of money were made to him by said Kirk if he should be favorable to the defendant, and that said Webb counseled the making of said promises by said Kirk and aided said Kirk in making the same; that said defendants E. D. Kirk and M. J. AVebb between the two dates last aforesaid employed one W. H. Tyng to get into communication with other members of the venire for the purpose of ascertaining whether they could be approached with offers of bribes or not. The court finds the testimony of said witnesses McCoy, Van Horn, and Tyng to be true, and that the misbehavior of the said E. D. Kirk and M. J. AVebb took place in the city of Seattle with the knowledge on their part that said men so approached and to be approached were members of the venire now in attendance upon this court, and that from said venire the trial jury in the case of United States vs. Clarence Dayton Hillman would be drawn, and with the intent on the part of the said E. D. Kirk and M. J. AVebb corruptly to influence the verdict in said cause, and that said misbehavior of the said E. D. Kirk and M. J. Webb occurred in the city of Beattie and so near to the presence of this court as to obstruct the administration of justice in this court, and that said acts of said defendants constitute contempt of this courtand further found that the place where the juror Hubert C. Aran Horn was corruptly approached by the plaintiffs in error with suggestions of the payment of money for the purpose of influencing his action in the event that he should be cbosen as trial juror in the case of The United Slates against Hillman was distant from the United States Federal Court Building, about 9 blocks, said blocks averaging TOO feet each.