The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1920-12-31
JUDGE SPENCE
COTBUSY ALL
OF A SUDDEN
Nearly Broke His Neck Payins
Over Money After Waiting
Ten Months

+ Under the caption Justice
| Spence Gives the Facts The .Ad-
vance in its issue of Friday, Dec
IA in justice to Mr.. Spence
gives that gentleman it's choice
space to try to discredit THE IN
DEPENDENTS exposure OF
Judge Spence's loose and unsat-
isfactory method of handling the
funds due the city from his
Court. y
| This newspaper charged that Judge
Spence had not, made settlement with
| the city in six months and that the city
| had not had an audit of his books. This
| newspaper charged that fines and costs
| from the Court of Judge Spence were
collected in an irregular manner and that
the Chief of Police often carried these
| fines and costs in his pockets for
months at q time without rendering an
accounting, once having carried as much
as 81, 400 for period of several months.
THE INDEPENDENT stated that these
facts related to the city's accounts and
it was presumed that Judge Spence had
made settlement with the county and
state.
Judge Spence, instead of admitting the
facts like a man and deploring his in
excusable negligence, uses The Advance
to try to make it appear that this news
paper had lied about him. He charac-
terized the story in THE INDEPEN-
DENT as misleading or wholly un-
true. He attempts to prove it by
statement from the county auditor and
statement from the Savings Bank &
Trust Co. to show that he had settled
with the county. This had nothing to
do with the case at all. He then sub
mitted a statement from City Auditor
NJ. f. Bell in which he attempts to show
that he had settled with the city before
the article in THE INDEPENDENT
was published. - 49,
The article in THE INDEPENDENT
was published in its issue dated Friday.
Dec. "a, 1920. The forms for that is
sue closed at II o'clock Thursday. Dec
% and the paper was on the press at
3 o'clock that afternoon. Judge Spence
probably got wind of the fact that this
newspaper would expose his suspicious
methods and nearly broke his neck try
ing to settle with the town before the
paper went to press. Here is the state
ment he got from Auditor Bell. 1t isn't
much of statement
ho% Oh
ago or about the first of November,
asked Mr.. Spence to pay over to
the city the costs due the city accord
ing to his books as trial justice. He
stated that he had been called to the
bedside of sick brother in Georgia
and that upon his return he would
settle the town costs. heard that
Mr.. Spence returned on Saturday
night, December 18th, 1920, and |
called him on Monday morning, Dec
ember goth, and asked him about the
settlement and he told me that he
would in three or four days.
On Thursday, December 23rd, 1920,
during my absence from the Office MIR.
Spence did bring checks TO the amount
of S5ll.88, which he said was the
towns part of the funds as turned
over to him by the Chief of Police up
until November 30th, 1920.
According to MIR. Spence the checks |
were left at my Office before the pub
Iieation of the article in the Indepen-
dent under date December 23rd, 1920. !
MILLS e. BELL, Auditor
Judge Spence uses the illness of |
brother as an excuse for his not sett-
ling with the city from Nov. 1 to Dec.
%. He evades the fact that he had not
made a settlement since some time in
February, 1920. Was his brother sick
during all those ten months? 1t would
be interesting to know what he was do
ing with the city's money in his pockets
all that time without giving an account
ing. The law says he shall settle every
30 days. He hasn't done it. He says /
Judge Sawyer before him didn't do it.
The records show that Judge Sawyer
usually settled monthly and never did let
his account lapse over three months.
There is a vast difference between sett-
ling with the city quarterly and lsettling