Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 12.djvu/608

 578 TI{IRTY—SE\’ENTII CONGRESS. Sess. H. Ch. 180, 181. 1862. ment, as aforesaid, may, at the option of the President of the United States, be absolutely null and void; and any member of Congress or officer of the United States convicted, as aforesaid, shall, moreover, be disqualified from holding any office of honor, profit, or trust under the government of the United States. Approved, July 16, 1862. July 16, 1862. CriA1>. CLXXXI.-—An Act to amend an Act entitled "An Act to create a Metropolitan Po- —j ·~··i· live District of the District of Columbia, and tc establish 0. Police therefor? approved Egg: °l‘·3§5· August six, eighteen hundred and sixty-one. lp. U l Be iz enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United Act O, ,86, States of America in Congress assembled, That the act entitled “An act to ch. 62, tnnenrled. create a Metropolitan police district of the District of Columbia, and to establish a police therefor," approved August six, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, be, and the same is hereby, amended as follows: Propcrtystolcu, Sec. 1. And be it further enacted, That all property, or money alleged &¤~ toy; i¤ cus- or supposed to have been feloniously obtained, or which shall be lost or l"°p°"y abandoned, and which shall be thereafter taken into the custody of any ° member of the Metropolitan police force, or criminal court of the District of Columbia, or which shall come into custody of any justice of the peace, shall be, by such member or justice, or by order of said court, given into the custody of and kept by an officer, who shall be appointed and may be R¢Si¤*¤¤‘ to be removed by the Board of Police, known as “ property clerk " of the Mek°l°°‘ tropohtan police district, and all such property and money shall be particularly registered by said property clerk in a book kept for that purpose, which shall contain also a record of the names of the persons from whom such property or money was taken, the names of all claimants thereto, the time of the seizure, and any final disposition of such property and money. Vmmmmd bow Wlieriever property or money shall be taken from persons arrested, and seen property shall be alleged to have been {elomously obtained, or to be the proceeds of m**>’ ° ’°$*°’°d· crime, and whenever so brought with such claimant and the person arrested before some magistrate for adjudication, and the magistrate shall be then and there satisfied from evidence that the person arrested is innocent of the oflience alleged, and that the property rightfully belongs to him, then said magistrate may thereupon, in writing, order such property or money to be returned, and the property clerk, if he have it, to deliver such property or money to the accused person himself, and not to any attorney, agent, or clerk of such accused person. If any claim to the ownership of such property or money shall be made on oath before the magistrate, by or in behalf of any other persons than the persons arrested, and the said accused person shall be held for trial or examination, such property or money shall remain in the custody of the property clerk until the discharge or conviction of the persons accused. All property or money taken on suspicion of having been feloniously obtained, or of being the proceeds of crime, and for which there is~no other claimant than the person from whom such property was taken, and all lost property coming into the possession of any member of the said Metropolitan police force, and all property and money taken from pawnbrokers as the proceeds of crime, or by any such member from persons supposed to be insane, intoxicated, or otherwise incapable of taking care of themselves, shall be transmitted as soon as practicable to the property clerk of the Metropolitan police district, to be duly registered and advertised for the benefit of all persons and parties interested, and for the information of the public as to the amount and disposition of the property so taken into custody by the police. All property and Whezrm be sold money that shall remain in the custody of the property clerk for the period M P“l’l’° "“°“°“· of six months without any lawful claimant thereto, after having been three times advertised in public newspapers, shall be sold at public auction, and _ Horsesand pen the proceeds of such sale shall be paid into the policemen3s fund: Pro- "‘h“bl° p"°l’“"Y· vided, That horses and other animals taken by the police and remaining