Perth Amboy evening news., 1912-08-03
STORIES TOLD
BY YOUNG MEN
Defendants in the Port
Reading Barge Case On
the Stand Today.
WOULD PROTECT GIRL
Declare She Wanted Them
to Save Her From Father
--Continue All Day.
WOULD PROTECT GIRL
special TO tbs EVENING NEWS.

|
New Brunswick, August 3.-The
case of the three young men accused
of keeping a Flatbush girl a prisoner
on a barge at Port Reading, will be
continued all day, Judge Peter F.
| DAILY announces. The court will not
declare half holiday this afternoon,
but will continue the session in an
effort to secure verdict from the
jury before Sunday. Sultra, one Of
the men accused, went on the stand
this morning In his own defense. 1t
is expected that long rebuttal will
be heard before the lawyers begin
summing up in this case, in which
Miss Mae Maher, fifteen years old,
Of Brooklyn, accuses Lawrence Pier
son, Patrick Reilly and Joseph Sla-
ira, all of Brooklyn, of abducting
her from her home and locking her
In the cabin of Sultra s boat at Port
Reading for three days.
Allison Pierson, Wall street office
clerk, was on the witness stand in his
own defense yesterday. He denied
that he had abused the girl. The boy
not only denied the girls story but
claimed that he had been acting as
protector for the girl; that she had
induced him against his will and
good Judgment to go to the boat with
her; that she had clung to him, had
been nuisance he could not rid
himself OF and he had acted In her
interests solely IN going with her;
had protected her as brother
This in brief, is the defense of the
three boys, as outlined by their coun-
sci at the opening of the defense yes
terday morning. Assistant Prose-
cutor Stricken made the defendants
admit that it WAS not the kind Of
protection he would like to see given
to one of his own sisters.
The state rested its case at the op-
ening of the trial yesterday and Law
yer Simpson, for Pierson, and Law
yers Coan and VanSickle for the
other defendants, moved for a direc-
ton of verdict in favor of the de-
PENDANTS, holding that the charge of
carnal abuse had not been proved.
The motions were denied.
Girls Letter Read.
Soon after Pierson went upon the
stand the defense produced letter
which it is alleged that Mae Maher
| wrote to her father while ec Ia.
boat. Befdre the Sssstttter waS-Sdmit-
and the lawyers argued the point In
| the Judges room. Pierson said that
he had seen the girl write the note,
having torn a leaf from book and
written on 1t. She had shown the
letter to him when 1t was completed
and had asked him If it was all right
to send to her father. He had seen
her put the note In a book and had
not seen 1t again until it was pro-
duced in court. This letter was read
to the jury and was produced in
court. This letter was read to the
jury and In part was:
"You have been the only man near
me. You have got me in a nice fix
and so as not to disgrace you l have
gone away. 1t will be no use for you
to bother about me, as l will have to
tell it was my own fathers fault.
MAE"
Pierson said that when he met the
girl in Coney Island she had told him
that her step-father had been abus-
ing her and illtreating he rama rhat
she did not want to go home again.
She had suggested that they seek ref
uge on Slatra's boat at Port Reading.
He had tried to send her home, but
she had clung to him and wouldn't
leave him and he had to go with her,
not wanting to leave her on the
streets. He denied that he had
locked her in the cabin or that she
had been abused or assaulted while
on the boat He denied that she had
ever been locked in the cabin, but
said that on Monday night she had
ing her and Ill treating her and that
they stopped at Nash's hotel and he
had had drink of beer and she had
not taken anything.
One night after supper they had
been upon the deck of the boat sing
ing until driven in by the rain al 10
o'clock.
He said that he had been en-
ployed as clerk at financial house
at 81 Wall street for the past four
months and for the two years preVf-
Gus had been a clerk with R. G.
Dunn & Co.
He denied that he had told the
girl to swear that she was eighteen
years of age or to swear that she had
paid her own way to Port Reading
from New York.
When Assistant Prosecutor Strick-
er took him on examination he
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