McCellan Everett01

Waupaca County News

March 18, 1926

New London Officer Must Stand Trial

Everett McCellan, a former policeman at New London, has been charged with the shooting of Ed Wolfrath on Oct. 13^th of last year and has been bound over to the spring term of circuit court in this city. It appears from evidence given at a recent hearing at New London that McCellan, while an officer, tried to prevent the escape of Wolfrath who is said to have been arrested charged with being drunk and disorderly. Some threats and charges are said to have taken place between the two men, which finally ended up in the policeman shooting the victim in the leg.

For seventeen weeks Wolfrath has been confined in the St. Elizabeth hospital at Appleton and from testimony of witnesses it is said the femur bone in his leg is shattered, that his leg is about three inches shorter than his right, and that he will be permanently crippled for life.

McCellan’s defense will probably hinge on a statement made by him, saying, “My duty as I saw it then was to prevent the escape of a prisoner, I used my own judgment. I would do the same thing over again under exactly the same circumstances.”