100 years ago in Spokane: The shocking fallout from the Maurice Codd acquittal continued with the arrest of a woman whose father had a disturbing link to the trial

A third Spokane woman, Nellie Fryett, was arrested in connection with irregularities in the Maurice P. Codd murder trial.

Unlike the other two women, Fryett was not arrested for perjury in her trial testimony. Fryett was arrested for helping one of the other women, Beatrice Sant, avoid testifying before the grand jury. Her brother, Fred Botts, was arrested on a similar charge.

No details were provided, but Fryett and Botts apparently helped Sant go into hiding while the grand jury met. Authorities spent many days seeking Sant, who did not emerge until after the grand jury indicted her for perjury.

Adding to the intrigue was the following eyebrow-raising fact: Fryett and Botts were the children of Edwin P. Botts, a Codd juror who died under mysterious circumstances shortly after the trial ended.

In a related development, Sant and Rose Fagan both pleaded not guilty to charges that they lied under oath during the Codd trial. Both women were key defense witnesses who testified that Codd did not throw Frank Brinton over a railing to his death during an altercation. Codd was acquitted, partly because of testimony from these two witnesses.

All of these perjury and jury-tampering cases would soon be headed to trial.

From the stadium beat: Spokane was seeking a downtown stadium for school athletics.

“The value of an enlarged downtown stadium … cannot be overestimated,” one official said.

Sound familiar?

Unlike today, the stadium in question was Glover Field in Peaceful Valley. School officials were seeking $30,000 to enlarge the stadium and play field so that it could host larger school sports events and drills.

The stadium fund drive received a boost when Victor Dessert, owner of two Spokane hotels, made the first donation of $200.