1844 - In the early afternoon, David Bettisworth, an constable of Hancock County, arrested the Prophet Joseph Smith on a writ issued out of Carthage, Illinois, on a complaint by Francis M. Higbee concerning the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor.  Several other men involved from Nauvoo were also listed in the writ.  The writ stated that the men could appear "before me or some other justice of the peace" and so the Prophet demanded to be taken to the closest justice in Nauvoo, not the one in Carthage that had issued the arrest order.  Mr. Bettisworth was upset and demanded that he go to Carthage.  Joseph "felt so indignant at this abuse in depriving me of the privilege of the statute of Illinois in going before 'some other justice,' that I determined to take out a writ of habeas corpus" (History of the Church, 6:454).  The Municipal Court of Nauvoo issued the writ of habeas corpus and the Prophet was released and ordered to appear the next day before the Court in Nauvoo.