Unlike Nettie McTaggart, La Plata County residents in 2024 probably don’t have to worry about ending up before a justice of the peace (the position was abolished in 1965) facing charges of bigamy, the act of marrying someone while already married.
But in 1906, that was a reality. McTaggart and a man, presumably a husband, were charged with adultery in a complaint filed by James McTaggart, presumably her other husband. Both were found guilty in October 1905 and fined $20 – about $700 today.
“It is illegal to try to marry somebody else when you’re married already – it’s a class two misdemeanor,” said Sean Murray, district attorney of the 6th Judicial District.
Although the law is still on the books, Murray said he was unsure whether a law enforcement officer would ever pursue charges under it these days.
The notes of criminal proceedings that occurred in La Plata County around the turn of the century are kept in broad leather-bound volumes labeled “criminal docket” and “civil docket.” They are among a collection of early records produced in La Plata County maintained today in a former evidence room of the county jail under the stewardship of Clerk and Recorder Tiffany Lee.
The longhand notes contain the story of what appeared to be a rather expeditious judicial process, Murray said.
In this series
This month, The Durango Herald is taking readers back in time through the lens of La Plata County government archives. The documents offer a look at what county residents cared about, how they lived and died, and the political landscape over a period of time, stretching from the mid-1880s through the 1930s.
The series appears each Sunday over four weeks: Aug. 4, Aug. 11, Aug. 18 and Aug. 25.
“Nowadays with the criminal justice system and with the courts generally, there is what I would call an avalanche of motions, trials, appellate litigation,” the prosecutor said. “There’s not really an institutional inhibition against that paper flood.”
That’s for both better and worse, Murray thinks. Judges can be stretched thin as they work through mountains of litigation, although he recognizes there is also a more zealous interest in defending the accused today.
Of relevance both today and 120 years ago was the question of whether to hold suspected murderers without bail.
Rosa May Vanderlip was charged with murdering her husband Charles (his real name was Clarence Gray) in May 1906 and was held without bail pending trial. According to The Rocky Mountain News reporting at the time, Rosa May Vanderlip ran a brothel in Durango’s red light district and stood to inherit valuable mining property near Silverton. She was convicted of voluntary manslaughter on Dec. 5.
But while she awaited trial – a period of five months – she was held without bail.
The Colorado Supreme Court in June ruled that even suspects in first-degree murder trials have the right to bail, leading judges across the state to set, in some cases, astronomically high bails. Two such suspects in La Plata County were held at $2 million and $5 million bail respectively.
“She was held without bond, and that’s actually on the ballot this November,” Murray said. “We’re going to have a referendum on whether or not people that are charged with the same crime, premeditated murder, first-degree murder after deliberation, should be eligible for bond.”
State lawmakers have proposed a constitutional amendment that would remove the right to bail in situations when a judge finds that the proof was evident or the presumption is great that the suspect committed the offense. The referendum will take at least a 55% majority to pass.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
