Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-22
CHAPLINS GIVEN
JAIL SENTENCE
NINE MONTHS AND FINE OF
$1,000 METED OUT
PETITIONS OF BOTH FRIENDS
AND JURORS OF NO AVAIL
Aged Mother of imperial Valley OPP
orators Led from Court Room by
Friend When the Judge
Gives Punishment

Frank n. Chaplin and David II.
Chaplin, convicted by a jury in the
United States district court January
9 of conspiracy to defraud the govern
ment of desert lands in the Imperial
valley were sentenced yesterday by
Judge Wellborn to spend nine months
in the county Jail and to pay fines or
$1,000 each. Before sentence was
passed a petition signed by the jurors
who convicted the brothers was pre-
sented to the court asking that fines
and not Imprisonment be imposed.
The Chaplins will take their cases to
the supreme court.
The trial of the Chaplins has occu-
pied the attention of the United States
district court four months and has
cost both the government and the de-
tense hundreds of thousands of dollars.
1t has been continued many times be-
cause of the ill health of one of the
defendants, Frank n. Chaplin.
Throughout the entire trial the mother
of the defendants, Mrs Lydia A. Chap
lin, an aged widow sat by the side of
her sons, and was one of the most in
terested spectators. She had held
hopes that a fine would be imposed in
stead of a jail sentence, and as Judge
Wellborn concluded his sentence she
NSpL Qulelly " lltl oCil anu Ncto 1So
gently from the court room.
The Chaplins before their indictment
were prominent business men in the
Imperial valley. Before settling in the
Imperial valley they were school
teachers. In their defense they stated
they had made the desert bloom like
gardens, had had no knowledge that
the law was being broken and were
only doing what every other settler in
bo Tro1o al vol "a The a
tition to Judge Wellborn by the jurors
in the case reads:
''We the undersigned, jurors who
rendered a verdict of guilty against
Frank N. Chaplin and David H. Chap
lin in the case of United States against
Chaplin and others, beg leave to rep
| resent to this honorable court that al
though under the law we found said
defendants guilty we do not believe
| they are criminal at heart or that they
had a guilty intent to actually defraud
the government in any manner, and
believe it our duty to respectfully ask
your honor to be as merciful as pos
| sible to them, and hope the demands
of justice may be satisfied without i'm
prisoning them"
Following the petition of the jurors
another was presented to the court
signed by all the county officers of
| Imperial valley, including the judge of
the superior court, The city officials of
Holtville city, capitalists of Imperial
county, officers of the Imperial and Ell
Centre chambers of commerce, bank
ers, publishers and editors of that Sec
tion and 257 business men of Imperial
county. This petition reads:
1.-THE Chaplins have been residents of
the Imperial valley since it's early his
tory, and no one stands higher in the
estimation of its citizens than they,
both for honesty in their private deal
ings as we'll as uprightness as men.
1--WE do not question the justice of
the verdict rendered by the jury but
we feel that whatever infraction of the
law may have been committed by these
men the same was done through
ignorance of the law and not by reason
of criminal intent and abandoned or
corrupt motives.
"They are men of families. They are
comparatively poor and the long trial
has been not only a sore financial bur-
den to them but punishment as we'll.
We their neighbors, respectfully urge,
inasmuch as they have heretofore led
blameless lives among us, that you
show them that clemency for which
they are so well known, and we ear
nestly pray you not to impose a prison
sentence on them"