The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1914-01-13
Pardon Denied.

George ID. Higgins, convicted in the
Burlington county court for indecent as
sault upon girl who lived in his house,
and who was sent to the state prison,
has been making strenuous efforts to be
released and his application was before
the court of pardons and was acted upon
on Wednesday. The court refused to re-
lease the man. The case is probably re-
membered by nearly all the citizens of
this county. Higgins, who is about 20
years of age, posed under the title of
Rev." being local preacher. Viola
Falls, an inmate of the New Jersey
Children's Home, was taken to Higgins
home to act as servant and while there
it was claimed THAT Higgins took adj
vantage of her. The matter was brought
to the attention of the authorities and
the man was tried and found guilty. He
was sent to prison for not less than five
years and not more than fifteen years.
That was in 1911 but the case was
through the several courts and it was
not until last July that Higgins started
on his prison life. Then efforts were be-
those who were instrumental in securing
conviction was minister, agent for the
Children's Home Society, and he was
quite active After conviction, however,
this fellow, who has moved to the West,
had a change of heart, and became
almost as active in endeavoring to get
Higgins released as he was to have him
imprisoned He said that he had dis
covered that the girls word could not
always be relied upon and intimated
that he knew something of that sort all
the time the trial was going on. If this
| is so it would seem as if there was man
at large who ought to be in charge of the
authorities.
| So much interest did the case create
and because of the attempts to show
that Higgins had been the victim Of
circumstances and made to suffer for the
misdeeds of another, that the court OF
pardons made the most careful investi-
CATION of the case and departed from its
usual custom of simply entering judg
ment and gave statement of the entire
circumstances as its reasons for refusing
the application. The court said:
1.-THE court of pardons today refused
to parole out of prison Rev. George ID
Higgins, sentenced from Burlington
county, November 2, 1911, for term
from five to fifteen years for carnal abuse
of Viola Falls, a fourteen-year-old ware
of the New Jersey Children's Home SO
ciety. His case went through the cour
of errors and appeals and he was no
committed to prison until July 10, last
Since his Incarceration he has interested
several clergymen in his case, and it wa
stated in the public press that the youns
girl whom he was convicted of wrOngins
had made an affidavit that it was som'
other man who had ruined her, and tina
Rev. Higgins was about to be vindi
Gated.
1.-The affidavit referred to was mad
before Higgins trial and was simply t.
the effect that Higgins was not the frs
man who had had improper relation
with her. On Higgins trial the gil
swore positively that he was guilty.
V. Williams the superintendent of tn
Children's Home society, who place
the girl in Higgins home, testified tina
: Higgins had admitted to him that b
had wronged the girl, saying that h
was tempted by her to do so and wa
sorry for it, on account of his former re
lations to the church.
"a witness called by Higgins to test
fly to his good character, said that Will
. his reputation for truthfulness was gooC
u e.. IL, \
D The court of pardons in its careful col
s sideration of the case, summoned til
o girl, Viola Falls, who appeared befol
the judges and reasserted positively thu
everything she had said upon the wi
: ness stand was true and that HuggiT
e was guilty. The court unanimously r.
o fused to parole him."