White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1912-05-12
BELLE LONDON
FREED BY COURT
NOTED AND NOTORIOUS UTAH
PARSONAGE ESCAPES LONG
PRISON TERN, THROUGH
RULING OF HIGHER TRIBUNAL.

Mrs. Dora B. Topham, alias Belle
London, former manager of the
stockade in Salt Lake City. who was
sentenced to Is years in the state
penitentiary for pandering, was or
dered freed by a decision of the
supreme court handed down late
Saturday afternoon.
The opinion of the higher tri-
bunal holds that the information
filed in the Third District court
was not sufficiently specific to give
the defendant a proper opportunity
to prepare a defense. 1t holds fur
Their that the evidence did not war
rant conviction of pandering. the
crime charged, and therefore the
judgment of the lower court is re-
yersed and the case remanded
with directions to discharge the de-
PENDANT.
Mrs. Topham was manager of the
"stockade' in Salt Lake, and was
arrested last fall on the charge of
pandering, in inducing and persuad-
ing Dogney Lofstrom Gray, 16 years
old. to remain an inmate of a resort
there.
Attorney E. A. Rogers. who APP
peared for Mrs. Topham in the trial
of the case before Judge F. C. Loot
borrow, filed a special demurrer
and reserved exceptions to the
rulings of the court, which formed
the basis of the appeal, while the
motion for a new trial in the dis
triet court and the appeal to the
supreme court were argued by
Powers & Marioneaux.
The last legislature of Utah
made p%andering a felony, the penalty
for the commission Of which is i'm
prisonment in the state pe%nitentiary
from one to 20 years.
The opinion of the supreme court
was written by Justice ID. N. Straup
and concurred in by Chief Justice
]. f. Frick and Justice w. NJ. Nc
Carthy.
The portion of the statute de-
fining the crime of pandering is as
follows:
ANY person who shall, by prom
Uses, threats, violence. or by any de-
vice or scheme, inveigle, or entice an
inmate OF a house of prostitution
or place of designation to remain
therein as such inmate" is guilty
of the crime of pandering.
The supreme court holds that the
Information, which followed the
exact language of the statute. is de-
fective in that specific acts are not al
legged against the defendant-that
generic terms only are used.
That the evidence does not support
the information, In the opinion of the
higher court, is shown in the follow
ing language:
mo act or conduct on the part of
the inmate, nor anything said or
done by her during the time she
was in the stockade and before she
left 1t, is shown from which 1t
may be inferred or implied that
the defendant the inmate remained
in the house of prostitution, or
was caused, induced or persuaded
to do so.
THE evidence, without dispute.
shows that the inmate during the
time she was there at will and yolun-
tarily left 1t each morning and re-
turned in the evening to ply her call
ing. Thus looking at the portion of
the evidence most favorable to the
state relating to the question in hand
the alleged promise-it is seen
that the defective information Is
even In that particular afso uhsup-
ported by evidence"
The supreme court justices in
handing down the decision whereby
the legal technicalities and COM
plications have side-tracked a
merited punishment, take occasion
to roundly score the stockade as un-
lawful and disreputable, as follows:
There is also much evidence to
show the manner in which the un-
and disreputable bust
ness was carried on in the stockade,
the defendants interest in, her con-
nection with and supervision over
II. and that she was an active and
the principal factor in fostering and