The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1908-07-02
Bertha Rousseau Tells District At.
torney Story Of Her life
in Pleasant Prairie
ARREST FOR PROMINENT MEN
Are Issued for the Arrest Of
Carl and John Dowse Both Well
Known in Pleasant Prairie
and the County
(From Thursdays DaiIy.)

Nr run 1uuESudy DdlIy.l
The town of Pleasant Prairie is
threatened with one of the biggest sem
stations in its history if stories about
the city are to be believed and it is
possible that several prominent men of
that portion of the county will be ar
rested on serious charges following
stories told to the district attorney by
Bertha Rousseau, fourteen year old
girl, from Winthrop Harbor. The girl
first came into the lime light when she
was taken into custody at Waukegan
on last Sunday with Carl Dowse, a we'll
known young man of Pleasant Prairie.
Dowse was fined 5000 on charges of
disorderly conduct and it is now
brought to light that, the girl was
brought to Kenosha and placed in the
county Jail here pending an examina-
tion. The child remained at the jail
until this morning when with her sister
and other relatives she went before the
district attorney and told highly SEN
sational story. The story involved the
names of several Pleasant Prairie men,
but no warrants have been issued for
the arrest. of any of these men and it
is possible that the case is not one for
The investigation Of the Kenosha coun.
ty officials. District Attorney Baker
was little slow to talk of the case,
but he admitted that the revelations
made by the girl were Of most sensa,
tional nature and that she had been
held at the Jail as a witness pending a
further examination. The child cried
when she told her story to the district
attorney at the police office this morn
ing and while it was claimed by some
people that she was lacking in mental
powers she showed no signs of this to-
day. The child told a straight but
awful story, but it is said that at least
one of the alleged assaults on the little
girl was committed over the Lake
county line in Illinois and it is said that
this is the one that has been most in
vestigated by the district attorney.
The people Of Pleasant Prairie are
watching the developments in the case
with great deal of interest. It is pos
sible that warrants for the arrest of
one or more Of the parties connected
with the abuse Of the birl will be issued
this afternoon, but no complaints had
been filed up to late hour
Later-Warrants were issued this af-
ternoon for the arrest of Carl Dowse and
John DoWse the complaint charging a
serious statutory offense The COM
plants on which the warrants were is
sued by Justice McCarron were made
by Mrs. Mary Hanks, a sister of the
Rousseau child. The warrants were
given over to Chief o Hare for service.
but neither Of the men had been ar
rested at the time of going to press.
The Rousseau child was returned to-
Jail where she is being held as a wit
ness against the two men.
Carl Dowse named in the warrant is
the same man as was arrested with the
child at Waukegan and John Dowse,
is widely known among politicians in
the county He was candidate for the
Republican nomination for sheriff at the
last primary election but was defeated.
District Attorney Baker will proba-
bly, have the girl sent to- one of the
state schools for safe keeping pending
the hearing Of the cases as he is unwill-
ing to have the child remain in Jail
until the September term of the Circuit
Court.