The Portland daily press., 1898-07-18
STOLE SHOES.
Three Boys and Their Complicated
Case.

| For case where the value of the
property was small the proceedings in the
case of the State against Michael N.
Joyce, Stephen Flaherty and Martin A.
Norton We're complicated. The re-
spondents, all of whom are twelve years
OF age, appeared before Judge Robinson
saturday to answer to the charge Of steal
ing boots and shoes from the stores Of
several local dealers. Besides thefts from
more than one store there were several
thefts from one or two of the stores, so
that the complaints contained a number
OF counts. One of the youngsters pleaded
guilty to all, another pleaded not guilty
| and the third denied some but admitted
one, SO that without record and q
calendar it was difficult to tell which
youth was on trial at any particular time
during the two hours which was devoted
to the hearing of the case. Another COM
pllcatlon was due to the fact that there is
more than one shoe dealer in town by the
namo of Douglass. This was shown early
in the proceedings, when Mr.. l.. M.
Douglass was called to the stand to testi-
fy as to thefts from his store on Middle
street, When County Attorney Libby be-
gan to ask questions there was good
deal of confusion until Mr.. Douglass came
to the rescue by explaining that the
Douglass mentioned in the complaint
keeps store on Congress street. AS Mr..
l.. NJ. Douglass lost the shoes it was
J. nprpScnrv t0 nfrap h tic art of ho 60
until new complaint had been made
out. Joyce was the young man who
pleaded guilty. As he stood in the dock
the rail came nearly to his shoulder and
some of the spectators could hardly
restrain their smiles as the recorder read
to Joyce the complaint that he had stolen
| the shoes'sw with force and arms" Stephen
Flaherty pleaded guilty to one count in
the three complaints. Norton pleaded not
| guilty to them all. j. E. A. Merrill.
| ESQ.,, appeared for F'laherty and Norton.
The government called as witnesses the
| keepers of the stores who testified to the
| loss OF shoes which were taken from the
go DDS displayed at the store doors, a
| young companion of the boys under ar
rest, Jacob Rodman who bought some of
the goods, and Police Officer SkiIlings.
Besides Mr.. Douglass, John e. Farr who
| K eeps store on Exchange street, and the
manager of the Hub store on Middle
street, described the thefts and identified
| boots and shoes in the court room as their
property. There were half a dozen pairs
all told ranging in value from 80 cents to
| $1.84.
Officer Skillings testified that he had
| found the shoes in pawn shops ON Fore
| street. He had arrested the boys and they
had been identified by the keepers of the
shops. In one case a pair of shoes had
Eeen sold for 15 cents. The boys had ad-
nitted to the officer that they had stolen
| the shoes.
John Joseph Kelley, who appeared to be
about the same age as the other boys, said
that he had seen Joyce and Flaherty take
| some of the shoes. Norton was not there
when he saw the theft.
| Jacob Rodnan said that he had bought
a pair of shoes of the boys at his store on
| Fore street.
The cases were tried one after the other
| but the evidence was similar in each.
| In his argument, Mr.. Merrill said that
while he thought that the members of
the police force inted to do only theirend
duty, still their zeal to convict those
whom they believed to be guilty might
lead them to err 1t seemed to him there
fore that in case like this, all the men
who said they had bought the shoes of
| testify. They certainly should have been
called on to tell in court what they knew
| about these transactions 1t was often a
difficult matter where number of boys,
some of them good and some bad, went
| about together, to determine just who
were the guilty ones. For this reason
charges against a number of boys like
| these should be supported by all the
evidence obtainable as to the identity of
the offenders.
County Attorney Libby submitted the
| cases with only a few words of argu-
ment
The court found the boys guilty of
larceny of shoes from Captain Farr, Nor
ton being guilty OF only one count. From
the Hub store Joyce and Flaherty were
| adjudged guilty. but Norton not guilty
Judge Robinson ruled that all of the boys
were guilty of larceny from Mr.. Douglass's
store.
Joyce was sentenced to the reform
school during his minority. Flaherty was
| fined $40 and one-third costs, and Norton
IS and one-third costs.
John Murphy, tie young man who had
stolen the gloves from Col. Bradbury was
brought in and fined $40 and COSTS In
default of payment he was committed to
Jail.
@en arrested Friday, were also before the
| court They were Michael Cavanagh and
Hugh J. Carr. The former was charged
with intoxication and resisting Officer
Jones. Cavanagh pleaded guilty.
Carr was arraigned on the charge nf
intoxication and an assault upon Lewis
Taylor. The prisoner pleaded guilty to
the first count, but not guilty to the
second. Carr explained that he had a
small American flag in his cap and that
Taylor made a break to pull the national
emblem off. cat this,'' says Carr, 81
took offense and I want to say right here
that l would do 1t again, and would
smash anybody who attempted to take
that flag from my cap, even if the
magistrate sent me to jail for year,
The court desired more time to inyesti-
gate the cases Of both of these men. Bail
was fixed in the sum of $500 for the ap-
pearanoe of Carr on Monday and in the
sum of 800 for the appearance of
Cavanagh on the same date. Neither Of
the soldiers was able to furnish the re-
quired sureties and were accordingly COM
mitted.
AN INSURANCE CHANGE.
<I~- r.