Weekly journal-miner., 1915-07-08
CASE AGAINST SEVEN
 BOYS IS DISMISSED
CFrom Thursdays Daly)

(From Thursdays Daly.)
 On a motion by County Attorney 1 O'Sullivan. based on letter from William Nelson, the complaining witness, Judge McLane yesterday dismissed the charge of felony against the seven boys who are said to have kidnapped the three seniors on the right on which they were to have graduated. The boys dismissed were Johnny Davis. Leo Penn, Lee Thomp- son, Ernest Love, Homer Clark Miley Deming and Jim Storts. The seniors alleged to have been kid
 mapped; were Tom Marks, Oliver Nelson and Paul Ketcherside.
 Nelson in his letter declared that he did not care to go any further with the case, but believed that the boys should be reprimanded. Judge McLane said that he believed the boys had ali been reprimanded enough and that he was certain they had all repented. Both McLane and Sullivan agreed that they would never be convicted by jury in the 1 Superior court and that it would be useless expenditure for the county to go ahead and prosecute after Nelson had decided to give up the case.
 The dismissal ends the incident which caused such a Juror about two weeks ago. The seven boys on We'd tuesday evening, June 16, are said to have abducted three of the seniors who were to have been presented with their diplomas that night They left in two autos on the afternoon of the 10th and by evening the High school authorities were anXiously awaiting word from several search ing parties that had been sent out to find the boys after their absence had been discovered. They waited and waited but the three seniors failed to appear nor could the searching par ties find them. Finally it was de- cided to let the exercises go on and this was done with the mothers of the absent lads weeping in the audi ence. They were all brought in from Ash Fork the next morning by the sheriff's office after a complaint had i been sworn out.
 The same morning of the arrest the school board Of trustees took ac- ton And expelled two boys of the seven from the High school forever. They were Leo Penn, a sophomore, and Lee Thompson, junior.
 Yesterday when given the oppor- tunity to move for a dismissal Neil C. Clark, attorney for the seven boys declared that he would make no such motion because he wanted the boys to have hearing and have the real facts in the case brought out After this statement Clark declared that the real facts would put an entirely different light on the affair and that ! it would show that the three seniors were as much implicated in the kid mapping end of it as were the ac- Cuscd. He also said that he believed ! that the school board had acted too , hastily in expelling the two boys, | taking action before they had beard the real circumstances surrounding 1 the affair. He declared that if the board had really investigated they | very likely would have withheld the | diplomas of the three seniors whom he and the seven boys claim knew of the affair before it was pulled of and were willing to go. Even if this were not so, he claimed, the three boys at numerous times had chances to come back to Prescott on the evening of the 10th. He said that of the three boys only two of them had to be held until they got out of town and then all three of them joined in with the crowd and had good time One of the three, it was said by Clark. paid for Y gallons of gasoline and purchased food for number of the boys. He declared that he would prove all this if they were given a hearing.