Benedict G. Fischer, St. Paul Police Patrolman

On August 14, Warren and Heinbaugh were charged with highway robbery in St. Paul Municipal Court. The cases were continued to August 24.

On October 5, a grand jury in the Ramsey County District Court indicted Warren, Heinbaugh, and Harris for assault in the first degree. According to court records, the three men:

“did wrongfully, unlawfully and feloniously make an assault in and upon the person of one Benedict G. Fischer with a weapon likely to produce grievous bodily harm, to-wit: - a pistol loaded with powder and ball…with the intent then and there had and entertained by them…to kill and murder the said Benedict G. Fischer.”

All three were also charged with robbery in the first degree for their crimes an hour before Ben was shot.

On October 8, Warren, Heinbaugh, and Harris were arraigned in Ramsey County District Court and pleaded not guilty to the charges. Three days later at their hearing, they withdrew their pleas. Warren and Heinbaugh then pleaded guilty to robbery in the third degree, and Harris pleaded guilty to robbery in the second degree.

The judge at the hearing was Charles C. Haupt, formerly a United States district attorney who, at age 63, had just that year been appointed to the Ramsey County District Court bench. The State’s case was presented by 40-year-old Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Christopher D. O’Brien Jr. O’Brien had been around the law all his life because his father was a lawyer of great repute and former mayor of St. Paul, and his uncle was a justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court. Warren was represented by Thomas W. McMeekin, an attorney who came into prominence years later for representing St. Paul’s infamous gangland kidnappers and murderers. Harris and Heinbaugh were represented by William J. Quinn. Quinn was an up-and-coming, politically connected 27-year-old attorney. This urbane young man was known as having a magnetic personality and being committed to serving the poor and unfortunate in his criminal practice.

It’s not clear how aware Mr. O’Brien was of the facts of the case. At one point he was questioning Warren, asking him about a robbery the night of Ben’s shooting. Mr. O’Brien asked many questions about robbing John B. Auger. Then the following exchange occurred:

Even if there were no charges filed regarding the other robberies that night – and Warren had actually admitted to holding up seven or eight men – it seems curious that O’Brien wouldn’t know that other robberies had occurred.

The court transcript from their appearance on October 11 focused almost entirely on the robberies. However, at one point Warren was asked if he shot Ben. He denied it and also said he “couldn’t say for certain” who shot Ben. O’Brien then said,

“These defendants, your Honor, robbed this man, John Auger, a citizen here, at Marshall and Iglehart, up there, and afterwards about 1 o’clock, as he says, afterwards got on the streetcar, and when Officer Fisher (sic) met them coming out to arrest them, I understand, my information is that Harris shot the policeman; is that right Mr. Quinn?”

Mr. Quinn, Harris and Heinbaugh’s defense attorney, said “Yes.”

When Heinbaugh and Harris were examined, the assault on Ben was not mentioned at all.

As the hearing was concluding, Mr. Quinn brought up the fact that Heinbaugh and Harris had about four years to serve on their parole violation charge in Iowa. He told Judge Haupt, “They are waiting for them in Iowa, and in pronouncing judgment that might be taken into consideration, the time that they must serve in Iowa and the time that they must serve here.” Then Mr. McMeekin mentioned that Warren was married and that he and his wife corresponded regularly since he had been in jail for this most recent offense.

Following this, Mr. O’Brien said, “the State as well as the police department under this plea of these degrees feel that the law should take its course.”

Judge Haupt decreed that Harris, Heinbaugh, and Warren all got indeterminant sentences for hard labor in the Stillwater penitentiary. Heinbaugh and Warren had a maximum length of incarceration of 10 years. Harris’s maximum was 15 years.

After this, the only other mention of Ben’s shooting transpired as follows:

Apparently the police, the prosecutor, and the court agreed that Harris, Heinbaugh, and Warren could plead to robbery, and that the assault charge for shooting Ben was not a consideration in their convictions and sentencing, even though in court it was acknowledged that Harris shot Ben. Perhaps the assault charge could come into play later if any of the three convicts did not fulfill anything the court required of them. It is possible that because Ben survived the shooting and walked out of the hospital, these issues simply faded into the background. It is also possible that some of these people did not fully understand that the shooting was so serious that Ben would have died had he not gotten immediate medical care.