Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-03-09
LET'S DID NOT
STEAL CHICKENS
ACQUITTED IN A LUDICROUS
MOCK TRIAL
JURY is SUSPICIOUS OF MAYORS
ABSENCE
Shameful Effort of a Bevy of Beauties
to influence Jurors by Casting
sly Wlnks Behind the
Judges Back

AeIIS, uOI Sullly VI SIdho l"iSSAASf o0
charged, in having stolen six hens and
one rooster, valued at $685. and said
to be a bargain price, from one A. b.
Cass, resident of the county of Gar
vanza, on the night of February q,
for the following reasons:
'First-The said Arthur Let's is not
guilty because Mayor Harper was not
there and helping him, which would
have been the case had he been guilty.
'Second-Because it has been adj
mitted by the members of this jury
that none of us are able to read or
write, and are therefore incapacitated
in writing our ballots or reading them;
and
'sThird-Because bouquet of celery
was sent to this jury by the de-
PENDANT"
This is the verdict rendered last
night at the mock trial in Simpson
auditorium before a large audience at
a benefit given by the members of the
Y. M. c. A. and their friends, in which
Arthur Let's was the goat"
The trial was written bv Johnson
Jones and proved excruciatingly fun
sistant prosecuting attorney, in his
usual role and George p. Adams attor-
ney for the defendant.
Let's Broke Jail
1t was stated at the outset that Mr..
Let's had broken bail and had flew
the coop" He had been recaptured.
however. and was found betting all
his worldly possessions at the race
track at Arcadia. His attorney stated
that the defendant had well known
and uncomfortable desire to bet on the
"a nd hot lan 1--we hat on a
wrong horse; that he had worked three
weeks to get the S. p. to give him a
pass to go to Sacramento to get the
anti-race track bill passed, and that
failing in this he had taken UP col
lection among the girls of the Gar
vanza department store and had in
fiuenced the stenographer of the clock
winder at the capital to influence some
body else to have the bill passed;
that the defendant had bet his pala-
tial country residence at Watts and
had also put up his department store
at Garvanza on the ponies.
At the very outset the proceedings
were interrupted by the entrance of
company of female admirers of the
defendant, who were objected to by the
district attorney as too much female
loneliness tending to bias the decision
of the jury. The spokesman for this
aggregation of beauties announced that
they were from the Association for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, but
We're denied further attention from the
court, other than being given seats.
after surreptitiously throwing kisses to
the jurors.
Ask Cass TO Tell Truth
A. B. Cass, the plaintiff, was brought
to the stand and asked to tell the truth
if he could do such a thing. He gave
his occupation as d chicken fancier and
an expert in chicken culture. 1t was
brought out that both Cass and Let's
had at one time been in love with a
red-headed German girl by the name
of Mary Ann O'Lafferty and that Let's
had won her affections, thus making a
life enmity between the two. 1t was
also brought out that Cass, on the night
of the robbery was so intoxicated that,
during d violent fit of coughing, he
threw up a cork as evidence of his i'll
toXication.
Attorney for the defendant endeav-
ored to show that the squawking of the
stolen chickens caused by row In
the hen house in the endeavor of the
six pullets to sit next to the rooster
and that the rooster had eloped with
the six chickens, thus accounting for
their absence.
Policeman Flanagan stated that he
heard the noise and saw people around,
but went to walk his bate"
William Willis, as a negro, wove
several fairy tales about an airship
stealing the chickens, and finally
stated that his best girl was cook at
the Cass house.
Luther Is Unbalanced
d. z. Luther, general secretary of
the Y. M. c. A, was next called to the
witness chair, but was found of I'M
sound mind by reason of entertaining
decisions regarding an ideal city with
no saloons or protected vice.
At the close, after both attorneys
had been fined for contempt of court,
which they couldn't pay, Attorney
Adams, for the defendant, made an
eloquent plea, saying that it was known
all over the country that vice was pro-
tected in Los Angeles; that the alb
sence of Mayor Harper and his pals
proved conclusively that the defend
ant was not guilty, and alluded to the
plaintiff with the gentle stigma of a
human being with the heart of a
coyote" saying there had never, in the
history of the city, been such a moral
turpentine."
Judge McComas followed with his
address to the jury, closing with an
original Bible quotation regarding the
probability of Mr.. Let's stealing the
chickens from a balloon, saying: HE
who goeth not into the door of a hen
coop, but droppeth down from an air.
ship, he is thief and a robber."
After some deliberation., under the
rather peculiar conditions, the jury
found the defendant not guilty. Mr.
Let's was then surrounded by his de-
voted female admirers who carried
away as trophies of their devotions
bouquets of wild mustard, parsley, cell
cry and lettuce.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
The Learned Judge. Hon. Curtis D. Wilbur
The Bailih .'.....'''......W. A. Reynolds
District Attorney ..........C. c. McComas
Associate Counsel ........... Oscar Evrum
Counsel for Defendant. George P. Adams
Associate counsel '..''''.'.. W. g. Colby
Court Reporter ............. Frank Lilard
Deputy Sheriff ...............L II. Kelsey
The Defendant ............... Arthur Let's
Defendants Bondsman. %. T. Johnson
WITNESSES FOR PROSECUTION
The Prosecuting Witness. ..-.-...A. B. Cass
The Colored Gentleman. w. Ponder
Defendants Cook Miss Nell Hghtower
Second Cook ........... Mrs. j. T. Ponder
WITNESSES FOR DEFENSE
The Chinaman ...,.......... Leland Reeves
The General Secretary. I'D. Z. Luther
Medical Expert ......... DR. H. S. Cheney
Aero Clubman ................J. G. Warren
The Aeronaut ............ Joseph A. Martin
THE JURORS
A. p Fleming, fore Julius A. Brown,
Giles kellogg. Clarence Eader,
=. T. Earl, H., l.. Vandergrift,
J. E. Carr, Charles Griffin,
w S. Bartlett. Robert j. Scott.
D. X. Edwards,
Law clerks newspaper reporters, sympa-
thetic females, etc