Evening Star Newspaper, June 9, 1937, Page 21

GARKETT TO KL NOCTNENTSFEY IN CRE 0TS Multiple “Clearing” System | Against Defendants Held Futile. DRESS SUIT BURGLAR CITED AS AN EXAMPLE Bentences in Most Actions Made to Run Concurrently — Lane Cases to Be Held to 11 or 12. BACKGROUND— Report of Washington Criminal Justice Association, showing ratio of about 10 to 1 between reported Jelonias and convictions, pointed to “Willie Pye” arrests as one serious weakness in law enforcement. The term described police practice of listing as “cleared” a number of cases charged against single de- Jendant, although he might be con= victed on only ome or two. As a remgdy, it was proposed police pre= pare evidence in all cases for pres- entation to grand jury and that prosecutor try all indictments re= turned. United States Attorney Leslie C. Garnett announced today discontinu- | TICKET-FNG engage in a game of chess, while David Frady, 9, looks on. = e The problem of keeping boys off the streets—and out of trouble—after school hours isn’t so hard when one con find something for them to do. Here at 472 Iwstreet southwest, where the Police Department established its Fourth Precinct Boys’ Club, more than 1,500 have been enrolled. the above picture, Joseph Stockstill, 7 (center). and Edward Frady, 7, g A In e A game of table tennis appeals to these two youngsters at the fourth precinct club, one of the largest of the four existing clubs. which the Police Department is seeking, clubs would be built in other sections of Washington, and more boys could go to camp. With the $75,000 Locked in Bath SCARED BOY RESCUED ance of the practice of “clearing” a large number of cases against a sin-| gle defendant by multiple mdmmenw.: In recent months his assistants have presented to the grand jury every case brought to them by police, regardless of how many were against the same defendant. This procedure was sug- gested by the Washington Criminal Justice Association, Inc. | Only yesterday Police Supt. Ernest W. Brown, replying to findings of the mssociation that only one-tenth of the felony charges here resulted in con- victions, stated that a former prac- tice of placing multiple charges| against a defendant, later tried on | only a few counts, was largely respon- | sible for the picture. In making his announcement, Gar- nett said of the multiple indictment ystem: “We have given it a thorough trial ind found that it merely wastes the time of the court and of citizens called as witnesses and does no good. “The judges will not sentence a man on more than three or four charges, even though there be 20 or 30 cases against him. It takes up the time of the grand jury and results in an un- | necessary expense in the form of | witness fees. | Garcia Case Is Example. He cited the case of George Garcia, | so-called dress suit burglar, as an | example. Garcia was indicted in 31| housebreakings. Five of the cnses} ‘were nolle prossed; he was convicted | in three, and pleaded guilty in 23. In imposing sentence, Justice F.| Dickinson Letts gave him three to ten | years in four of the cases and made | the sentences run consecutively, there- | by resulting in a total sentence of 12 to 40 years, the most severe imposed here in recent years. Sentences were meted out in the 22 remaining cases, but in all were made to run concur- rently with the first four, adding nothing to the total to be served. Garnett explained he reached his decision when Detective Richard F. McCarty, tenth precinct, met him in a court house corridor and remarked: “I'm going to need your grand jury | all day pretty soon. I've got 24 cases| against & man, and there are a lot | more in the ninth precinct.” The prisoner referred to was Wi!-‘ Yiam F. Lane, 30, colored, whom the | officer had arrested on charges of | breaking into numerous houses in the Park View section. Fourteen | similar charges have been placed against him by ninth precinct police. Garnett instructed his assistant, | Clinton Vernon, to present only 11| or 12 of the most serious cases against Lane. No Hard and Fast Rule. “I am not going to adhere to any hard and fast rule,” Garnett e: plained. “The facts will have to con- trol the disposition of each case. From now on, where there are 10 or a dozen cases against one man, we will | present only two or three or per- haps four to the grand jury.” ‘Simultaneously with his new dec- laration of policy, Garnett gave orders that a notation be made on the grand jury records of every case brought in by police and not pre- sented. In this way the dispositions of all cases can be shown and the police allowed to clear their records. Vernon disclosed that 82 cases | against only 4 defendants now are | pending before the grand jury. All are housebreakings. Thirty-eight of | these are against Lane, 16 against ! another man, 17 against a third and | 11 against a fourth. t In his statement yesterday. Maj.| Brown said that in many instances 30 or 40 cases will be placed against a single individual, but only two or three | eases filed in court. He said this has | been corrected during the past year by | arrangements with the United States | attorney and instructions to members ©of the police force. In all cases where there is sufficient evidence to warrant a charge, he said, ‘witnesses and evidence will be present- ed to the district attorney’s office for presentation to the grand jury. “This,” he added, “wi]l result in a disposition by “the court of all cases presented against the defendant and will eliminate the large number of cases classed by the Criminal Justice Association as technical arrests:” NEW YORKERS ELECT James E. Black Named Head of | State Society. James E. Black was elected presi- | dent of the New York State Society at the annual meeting of the organiza- tion last night in the Shoreham Hotel. Other officers chosen were C. M. Little, treasurer; Miss Loraine K. Rogers, secretary; W. A. Carr, Walter D. 8utcliffe and Samuel J. Gompers, vice presidents, and Miss Mary-Teresa Paro, historian, | United States attorney. Assistant Cor- | | num| BY PQLICE. CHARGES AIRED Lawyers for Policeman De- mand U. S. Attorney Study Developments. A defense demand that the Unfted States attorney’s office be acquainted with developments in the ticket-fixing | charge against Policeman Welford E. | Winfield, formerly of the Traffic Bu- | reau, was taken under consideration today by a Police Trial Board hearing the case. | The demand was made by Attorneys | Charles E. Ford and William McGrath | during cross-examination of Miss Jessie J. Ball, a prosecution witness. | The defense contended there were crepancies in the testimony of Miss Ball and also between statements she has made and those by Charies Lin- kins, a lawyer, who also was sum- moned by the prosecution. Differences at Issue. | The differences center mainly about the genesis of a statement previously introduced, in which Miss Ball related happenings at the home of Wmfleld_. when she was in attendance on th: policeman’s” estranged wife, who now | is dead. One angle remaining in doubt is whether the statement was taken down at Miss Ball's direction by Linkins or by Teunis Collier, the Georgetown traffic crusader whom | Linkins is now representing in a court | action against District officials who | enforce law against traffic violators. | Ford, who has charged in the past that his client is the victim of a frame-up, vigorously attacked the tesk| timony given thus far in making hilf demand for an investigation by the Bertram King, 21,, son of Mr. and Mrs. W. B. King, is demonstrating how he locked poration Counsel E. M. Welliver, the - himself in the bath room and prosecutor, contends that some of the| caused all the excitement at items pointed to by the defense as dis-‘ .his home at 2210 Q sfreet e fal. EHeDancles e dmn southeast yesterday afternoon. e Consider s Bertram was supposed to be Inspector Edward J. Kelly, who is taking his afternoon nap conducting the hearing with Capt. Joseph Morgan and Capt. Lloyd Kelly, | when he got up and wandered said the the board would give due con- | into the bath room. He closed sideration to the defense contention. the door and turned thé key. The cross-examination of Miss Ball| When he could not get the precluded any action by the board| goor open again, he cried for his mother. She called the on a mass of documentary evidence designeq to support the charge against| Fire Department after vainly trying to loosen the key from Winfield. This material, which was identified Monday, came into the hands | the outside. Policemen R. L. Rison and of the Police Department through Linkins, who said he received it from | K. T. Stein beat the firemen there in a radio scout car. Mrs. Winfield. Among the items are | r of unserved traffic warrants. | They quickly jiggled the key The hearing was adjourned this aft- | loose and freed the badly ernoon until Friday. frightened youngster. Then . the ;‘ire thepurtmeni wscu; . squad an he reporters an First Steel Fence. photographers argived. CUMMINGS AIDING REPORT ON J0RDON Send Own Recommenda- tion to Roosevelt. Attornéy General Cummings today facilitated action on a report from Pardon Attorney Daniel M. Lyons | reliably reported to recommend a com mutation to life imprisonment in the sentence of Thomas Jordon, scheduled to be electrocuted next Monday for the murder of Mrs. Lizzie S. Jaynes. Cummings, known to be deeply in- terested in new evidence presented in Jordon's behalf, was expected to send his own recommendation to President | Roosevelt today or The President or advice of the Attor 1 in such cases P; dent Roosevelt is familiar with the case, having once refused clemency to Jordon. Not long after executive clemency | was denied, written ahd oral evidence | tending to throw doubt on the identi- | fication of Jordan as the slaver of | Mrs. Jaynes was brought to light, and the Justice Depariment reopened its study of Jordan's conviction Lyons questioned several witnesses who are said to have described Mrs | Jaynes' slayer as being 6 feet tall, whereas, Jordan is about half a | foot shorter than that. It was indicated that, in view of | this evidence in Jordan's favor, the Justice Department will suzgest to the White House that the convicted man’s sentence be changed to life imprisonment in a Federal peniten- tiary. |CLUB REQUESTS BALLOT FOR ECUADOR'S WOMEN ws the | Resolution to President Paez Says Decree Jeopardizes Right of Citizenship. ‘The current events section of Women's City Club adopted a reso- lution yesterday urging President Frederico Paez of Ecuador to safe- guard the right of Ecuadorean women to vote. The resolution declared that a de- | cree of May 6 denying women the vote on July 11, when delegates be elected to a congress for revi the constitution “jeopardizes the dor.” Mrs. Harvey W. Wiley, president of the cluo, said that the so-called Leftist groups are trying to eliminate will | ing | rights of women as citizens of Ecua- | women from the electorate in Erua-fim_vcr appointed by the court wri?es} PAGE B—1 | | boys, located at Twelfth and U is attested by the fact that more than 4,000 lads have enrqlled since it was opened less than two months ago. Bozing instruction is a feature at all the clubs. photograph was taken at the second precinct unit, for colored The above streets. The club’s popularity —Star Staff Photos. Lawyers Vote Probe to Halt , Frauds in District Divorces of Clients Told that fraudulent procurement | | of divorces in Washington amounts almost to a public scandal, the Dis- | trict Bar Association last night voted | an investigation. A committee of seven was author- ized to inquire into existing conditions and practices and recommend to the | ‘association “measures best calculated to remedy the situation and protect the public.” Jean Boardman, who was obtaining enactment of the liberalized divorced statute attorneys that “a good law is being used as an instrument by unscrupu- | lous persons to obtain fraudulent di- | vorces.” Himself an attorney special- | izing in divorce practice, Boardman said§ a large percentage of divorce cases here are fraudulent. active in District's told the | Client Changes Story: | ® “The court is being imposed upon in an appalling number of cases’ he declared. “The time has come | when we, as lawyers, must act toi prevent a public scandal | | “I am not saying members of the | bar are responsible. I think they, | also, are being imposed updn. “A client will go to a lawyer and tell him the truth, and the lawyer will advise him he has no grounds for divorce, that if he persists, he | may find himself charged with per- | ury | : “Then, to the first lawyer's sur- prise, he will sce next week in the legal record that his client has filed suit for divorce. The client will have learned enough from the first lawyer to know what to tell the second. “I have had that experience many times, and I know many of you have had the same experience.” Senator King, chairman of the Senate District Committee, foresaw | [ this difficulty when «the divorce bill | was pending, and predicted it would lead to fraud, “but we assured him,” | Boardman continued, “that, we had |'a section in our code which would protect us.” The section referred to provides | that should a divorce case be uncon- tested, the court must appoint a dis- interested attorney actively to defend the case. Sees Pa. e Opposition. The difficulty, Boardman told his fellow lawyers, is that the attorney appointed to defend does not actually defend, but sits passively in court apd | often does not even ask a question. What usually occurs is that the dor because their votes have led to | the defendant a letter and is informed |Bar Association Acts as Jean Boardman Attorney General Likely to| Tells of Abuses—Changing of Story Charged. court of the defendant's attitude and there is no active defense. PROBE F KEEE " DEATHAT PALSE |Maryland Detective Takes Day to Attend Funeral. | Report Due Soon. Much of the fraud and collusion in procuring divorces would be elimi- nated if attorneys apppinted by the | court conducted a real investigation and an active defense, Boardman as- serted. “Congfess had in mind that the public is always a third party in every | divorce: case, and Congress intended that the public should be represented by the attorney appointed to defend,” he said. Adoption Change Indorsed. A bill to change the procedure for adoption by requiring a six-mont 1 pe- riod between an interlocutory ‘and final decree, unless the infant has lived for six months with its adop- tive parents prior to filing of the adoption petition, was indorsed by the association. The lawyers unanimously voted against the proposal to increase the District gasoline tax from 2 to 4 cents, and also disapproved the so-called single tax bill. A measure to assure the presence of a womn on the Com- | mittee on Admissions and Grievances of the Bar also was frowned upon. The association indorsed bills to raise the limit for petit larceny from $35 to $50: to impose a graduated tax on parking lots; to impose a 2 per cent tax on gross receipts of moving pic- ture theaters and to raise the salaries of deputy United States marshals to $2.000 a year. . ON MARRIAGE CLAUSE Resolution to Be Considered at Next Meeting of Rules Com- mittee, Perhaps Friday. Action on the resoMtion of Chair- man Ramspeck o the House Civil rvice Committee to eliminate the “marriage clause” of the economy act is scheduled at the next meeting of the House Rules Committee, probably Friday. This was decided yesterday after Representative Smith, Demo- crat, of Virginia had requested an early meeting in a conference with Chairman O’Connor. Previous action had been pre- vented by the absence of Representa- | Investigation of the mysterious | death of Charles F. Keene, sr., whose body was found in Chesapeake Bay | May 31 with a bullet through the brain and a weighted brief case tied around the ngck, was at & standstill | today. Detective Sergt. Marlin Brubaker, in charge of the investigation for Mary- | land State police, took the day off to attend a funeral in Philadelphia. Bru- baker intends to submit a report to State's Attorney F. Kirke Maddrix at Crisfield. Md.. urday, | Inspector B. W. Thomnson, of Washington detectives, been co-operating .n thg in tion, said his men have run ou clue furnished them ..nd have nothing to check on today. Brubaker's report to Maddrix, it was learned, will strongly intimate that Keene committed suicide, although the investigator said it will not con- tain any definite conclusions | Maddrix said he will not allow the case to be closed as a suicide “as long | as there are any clues indicating murder which cannot be fully ex- plained.” He pointed out that the case is now listed in Maryland records as an unsolved murder as a result of the verdict of the coron Jjury on Smith Island, where the body was taken by the fisherman who found it Keene vanished from his room aboard the Steamer of Columbia May state- District 14. The room was in disorded, and there were blood- stains on the bed and washboards. | Outside the window, on a guard rail above a narrow catwalk, there was blood. On the aft deck rail, 10 feet from the window was a bloody hand smear. The 32-caliber gun which killed Keene has not been found. Efforts fo identify the automobile tools found in the brief case and the brief case itself have been futile. D. C. GETS $44,065 FOR AID TO AGED Social Security Board Estimates There Are 2,500 to Re- | The first wire fencing for farms in the United States was sold in 1874. Steel statisticians say so. “It was an exCiting after- noon,” said Mrs. King. —Star Staff Photo. Mrs. Elsie M. Soper was the only one injured when the car in which she was riding with her husband, Paul M. Soper, came to rest on the radiator of a parked machine after a collision with a paper company truck at First and O streets today. The truck, going south on First street, was overturned, and the Sopers’ sedan, going east on O street, careened into the car shown in the picture, which was parked on the east side of O A conservative victories. The constitu- tion of 1929 extended suffrage to the ‘women of Ecuador. street, just south of the intersection. Mrs. Soper was treated at Sibley Hospital for brush burns to the legs and back. The truck was driven by Allen E. Coates, 26, colored, 97 Fen- A second colored man, Raymond Kitching, 29, of 219 Q street, was standing in the back of the truck. The ton place northeast. Sopers live at 30 Adams street. | he will not or does not want to con- | test the case, Boardman explained. ! He said the attorney then notifies the —Star Staff Photo. tive@D'Day, Democrat, of New York, ceive Benefits. who stated she wished to be heard.| A Federal grant of $44,065.41 to the She is understood to have registered | District of Columbia for aid to the | under the leadership of Clifton Moore her support of the pending measure. Miss Mary Ducey of New York and Washington, vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, also had requested that she be heard in support of the effort to wipe out the “margage clause,” but O'Connor ex- plain! in reply that the hearings | are closed and the next meeting of | the committee will be in executive session to reach a decision on the Ramspeck resolution. Meanwhile, pressure has been brought on members of Congress to give assurance to the Rules Commit- tee that a favorable report will result in the bill being passed in the House. | Chairman Cochran of the Commit- | tee on Expenditures has been the | most active opponent. WREATH TO BE PLACED History Club Will Remember John Howard Payne. The History Club of Western High School will commemorate the 146th anniversary of the birth of John Howard Payne, author of ‘“Home Sweet Home,” by placing a wreath on his monument in Oak Hill Cemetery | at 3:15 p.m. today. Miss June Thomas, club president, will place the wreath, accompanied by Robert Sutton, vice president. Mrs. V. A. Y. Werthner, faculty adviser, was to speak briefly. A review of the life of Payne was to be recited by Miss Helen Matheson. A school chorus was to sing his rnmoui"!{ome Sweet Home.” . —— Machinery Exports Up. Exports of machinery from the United States during the first monch of this-year were valued at $17,273,000, the highest monthly value since 1930 and a 19 per cent gain over January, | aged was announced today by the So- | cial Security Board, which estimated there are 2,500 beneficiaries of this type of assistance here. The local grant was included in a total of $14,405909 for public assist- ance for 37 States. All but about three- quarters of a million went to the aged, the rest to children and blind Twenty-eight States and the Dis- trict now are participating in all phases of the Federal-State public assistance program. The board today also cautioned em- ployers to be certain that the right so- cial security account numbers are used when listing employes for old-age benefits. The admonition was prompted because of cases arising where employ- ers seek to obtain the numbers of workers no longer in their service. . AUTO INSPECTION BILLS HEARING ON FRIDAY Subcommittee of Senate District Committee Will Take Up Two Measures. A public hearing on two bills pro- viding for mechanical inspection of motor vehicles in Washington will be held at 2:30 pm. Friday by a sub- committee of the Senate District Com- mittee. The subcommittee consists of | Senators Capper of Kansas, chairman, and Overton of Louistana and Tydings of Maryland. | One bill was introduced by Senator King of Utah, at the request of the | Commisisoners, and the other is spon- | sored by Senator Lonergan of Con- | necticut. Aid for World War Orphans. Thirty-five®tates and the District of Columbia provide through legisla- tive enactment for the granting of scholarships to World War orphans W.C.7.U1 OFFICERS MEET 70 ACT ON FINAL BUSINESS , | Most of Delegates Depart as Convention Ends With Pageant. NAMING OF ADVISERS AND ORGANIZERS UP 13 Resolutions Adopted on Final Day, Urging Abstinence and Liquor Education. With a majority of the 2.700 dele- gates and vigitors homeward bound following the close of the world con- vention of the W. C. T. U. last t, officers and certain other officials re= mained in Washington today to decide where the 1940 convention will be held and to make nominations for the Ad- visory Committee, organizers, re sentatives, branches and departmen ‘Tomorrow and Saturday the Execu tive Committee of the national W. C. T. U. will hold meetings at the Wash= ington Hotel. Approximately 500 men, women and children took part last night in the pageant, “Souls Courageous,” main feature of the final program of sixteenth triennial convention of world union, which had been in se: at Constitution Hall since T. The pageant was under di Ma Moore Forrest of Washi The colorful performance, di the growth of the W. C. T. U. its foundi in 1884 by Frances W lard, cont gates and visitors f represented appeared costumes Thirteen Resolutions Passed. The convention adopted 13 resolu- tions yesterd: The and transpo authorities of all countries were “to prohibit consumption of alcoh liquors by the drivers of road vehicle by the pilot t, by the operat- ing perso oads and water craft, and for before going on duty.” asked that the sale ked ports tions and on trai: The League of Nations w upon “to make f investigations on the close relatior the use of beverage alcohol” and * iniquitous traffic of women and c dren.” An appeal was made to go | ments “concerned” to “protect the na- | tive races from the temptation of al- | coholic liquor.” | Another resolution stated: “We re- Joice in the extension of citizenship to women and in the* increasing recog- | nition of their nationality rights. We urge each nation to enact the neces- | sary legislation to secure these reason= able rights to women of the world. We urge definite study for educati in government and@for the partic | tion of women in the use o to the end that society m: tected from ber, 1937 proposal to incorporate in covenant an amendment for an equal- | ity of rights for men and women.” Alcohol Study Urged. | The League also was | to Quested to instruct its Com Nutrition to investigate the effect of | alcohol on the nutritive value of foods | “and so on to the health of the people.” It was also asked that the scope of the League of Nations be expanded to include “expert studies of conditions contributory to war, with a view to eliminating the causes of war.” The | convention resolved in favor of the Briand-Kellogg pact, the settling of | disputes by arbitration, based on national law, collective responsibili of nations to prevent breaches of peace and disregard of treaty obligations Another resolution stated of prohibition States and Finland has not solved the | liquor problem in those countries, nor has so-called government control Other methods substituted instead of prohibition have proven ineffective in lessening the consumption of beverage alcohol. We declare our convict that erad®ation, not rest @ion, is the only solution of the world-wide liquor problem.” ‘PROPAGANDA’ MOVE HIT BY SENATOR | Thomas “Hopes to Halt” “De flationary” Attitude of Gov- ernment Officials. Bv the Associated Press Senator Thomas, Democrat, of Ok- lahoma, said yesterday that the Senate Agriculture Committee “hoped to halt” the “deflationary propaganda of Sec- retary Wallace and other administra- tion officials” by its current program of hearings. “Some of the members,” he said, “have been trying for 60 days to get farm leaders here to testify—not so much in the interest of new legisla- tion as to counteract an official atti- tude that farm prices are high enough.” Thomas, advocate of cheaper money, made the statement after the Execu- tive Committee of the powerful Amer- ican Farm Bureau Federation had thrown its support to the Oklaho- man’s bill to set up a Federal mone- tary authority Chairman Jones of the House Agri- culture Committee, leavi: a White House conference, said it was “pretty late” in the congressional session for general farm legislation. “But our committee will proceed to study the matter,” he sald. It might be that we can agree on a measure before adjournment.” Democratic leaders have put only “The re- peal the Unit in d: and 11 States provide scholarships for 1936, the veterans themaselves. . the administration's farm tenancy bill on a preferred list.