The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-07-24
SERIOUS CHARGE
AGAINST C M CURE ! /
Richmond Real Estate Man In
dicted Yesterday by Grand
Jury.
FIRM ISSUES STATEMENT A
Deny Allegations and Explain
Transaction Out Of Which
Action Grows.

, Z. ! Il
II. NJ. Mcclure, member of the
real estate firm of McGuires& & Casper.
was indicted by the grand Jury in the
Hustings Court Yesterday for grand
larceny, the: con, p g nants In the case
being Miss Essie Curtis, a teacher in
the Springfield School. whose home Is
at NO. eel North twentieth Street. The
amount involved, as stated in the in
sdictment, is s269.15. n si
What Miss Curtis Charges.
Miss Curtis went before the jury and
testified in effect that after seeing a
certain piece of property in College
Street advertised for sale she went
there to inspect It. The house was
Yoccu pied by a negro family. Later she
said, she called on Mr.. Mcclure and
discussed the matter Of purchase, mem
3tioninK the fact that the place was
occupied. According to her statement,
she was persuaded Immediately to
make the purchase. and Mr.. Mcclure
drove her to her home where she se-
cured part of the money. A day
or two later she says Mr.. Mcclure, in
company with a notary public, visited
her at. the Springfield School with the
deed Of trust for her signature,
It was alleged by Miss Curtis tha t
though Mr. MCGUIRE had secured an
option on the house which she had In
reality. an unocupled dwellingtan had
bspected, 1t was not the: property ad-
avertised, and that he had offered In
sold it to her when She thought she
was buying an entirely different place.
She testified that MIR. Mcclure merely
him that the building which she de-
sired was occupied by negroes.
Statement from Firm,
The firm of Mcguire and Casper
yesterday gave the following state
ment as to their side OF the affair:
With III regard s !, to tRs iHds,msnt I, n1s, this
our firm, by the grand jury OF the
Hastings Court of the city OF Richmond
we beg to make the following 6tate- Z
ment: .
ION Sunday. May the 9Th, 1907. We
advertised for sale a good four-room
house on College Street. suitable for
colored people. at $3.50. On the day fol-
lowing, the 13th lady came into our
office and stated that she had seen the
advertisement Of the PROPERTY; that shs
had also been out and looked atNthe
| property, ana tnHL Sne sWlSneu 10 Uuy II.
We thereupon prepared contract OF sale.
giving the number OF the house. which
was read and signed by her, and a
| certain sum paid on account .ofathe pur-
| chase, The title was examined deed
prepared, and Il deed of trust extl;uted
for the unpaid purchase money in due
course. Some days thereafter the lady
came back to our office and stated that
she was dssa tlshed with her purchase;
that she thought It was another house
she was huying, ard wanted her money
back. We had settled with the owner
and had no further authority In aMthc
premises We did, however. report, the
fact TO the owner and he declined to
cancel the transaction and return the
purchass money. We told our patron
that, In order to satisfy the lady who
had purchased the property, we would re-
turn the commissions charged him II he
would cancel the gale and return the
| purchase money.
III I "Some days LATER a friend of this lady
GATED at our office and accused of us
having misrepresented improperly, and
threatsne prosecution unless We refund
ed the money, We had made no repre-
sentatlons whateyer--we told her the
| number OF tho house we had for sale.
which none OF us at that time had
@ seen--and she bought the property as
| ve understood, upon. her oWA Inspect ION
| of III, and we refused to consider any
proposition accompanied by threat
| ''This lady and her friend, IT appears.
! have brought the matter to the ntten-
ton of the grand jury which has re-
suited In the Indictment above referred
| to. and which Mr. MCGUIRE stands ready
to meet at the earliest opportuhity.
We respectfully ask a fair-mlndad p,lb-
| lie to suspend Judgment until the case
can be tried. when IT VIII be showngthat
we We're not at fault In, any respect
| xl,h n