The Mena weekly star., 1909-11-11
SPECIAL GRAND JURY CONVENED
Chief Duty Is to Act on the Hatfield Arson Case Luther Allen Indicted for Perjury Before 1908 Grand
 Jury Other Cases.

Judge J. ;. Steel rc-couveued
 circuit court Monday morning, af-
 ter vacation of one week. The first case up, which occu- pied most of the day, was that of J. c. Morgan, charged with slug ging and robbing Frank Weber.
 which occurred in the alley back of the office of The Star ou the night of October II. Morgan was represented by Thomas A. Berkebile and put up strong de- fsnse. One witness testified that the prisoner was known as Char lie Miller.
 At 3:45 the jury returned ver- dict of guilty, with a sentence of three years in the penitentiary.
 At the beginning of court Tuesday special grand jury was formed for the purpose of taking action on the burning of the Welch & Allen store at Hatfield, for which Ed Faulkner stands charged. When the regular grand jury was in session the witnesses could not be found. The jury found an indictment against Faulkner, but on trial before a jury Monday he was acquitted.
 Nearly the whole time the cir cult court Monday was taken up with the case against J. C. Morgan, charged with assaulling Frank Weber, an aged German visitor to Mena, on October II.
 Old hands in court assert that Morgan was remarkably clever witness in his own behalf lin fact so clever that 1t is possible that he overdid the thing and infiu- anced the jury the other way. They also state that 1t was prob ably the fine address of Morgan's attorney. I. 4. Berkebiiiie, wfho was appointed by the court to make the defense, that caused him to get off with the minimum penalty, three years in the peni- teniiary.
 Morgan took the sentence smilingly and whistled cheerfully when led back to jail. Incident ly, the officers found on hts per- son yesterday a fine steel saw that if it had not been found would readily have aided him to gain his liberty. It is evident that Frank Rcpeito, the night watchmau who caught Morgan on the night of the slugging, made u mig hty good catch.
 Somewhat of sensation was created in court after the Morgan case, where Luther Allen, young man, was arrested and taken from the witness stand and charged with perjury. IL seems that Allen appeared before tbe' 1908 grand jury and testified that Grover Winton, of the same
 neighborhood, had been drunk at public meeting at Rocky. When the case came up Monday. his statements were wholly to the contrary. He was placed under $500 bond last night and today
 the special grand jury found an indictment against him on the charge.
 Tuesday the case against ". l.. Lyman, charged with ss- sault with intent to kill. was on trial. The affray occurred some time ago in the Griffis saloon. and, from the evidence, one J K. Walker and another man whose name was not known, were heap- ing all sorts of verbal abuse on Lyman, then Kansas City Southern brakeman, and when he resented this. Walker is said to have attacked him with beer bottle. At this juucture Ly- man took a couple of snap shots with his revolver, both going wild. Lymau plead guilty to carrying concealed weapons. After several hours of delibera- ton the jury acquitted him on The other charge.
 Ed Warren, charged with steal- ing a steer, was found not guilty.