Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-05-18

They stole an automobile in Dayton,
O and drove it to Richmond, Ind, last
May, they confessed.
When the boys were sentenced to serve
eighteen months each in the federal PEN
itentlary at Atlanta, Ga, the mother Of
one OF them, who was sitting in the rear
OF the courtroom, broke into sobs.
DIRECTS MOTHER BE
TAKEN FROM ROOM.
Kindly the court directed that she be
taken from the courtroom and then, his
eyes flashing fire, he broke out:
You see, this thing has been go-
ing on for years and years and the
time has come when I've got TO speak
out.
I'm going to say why I have to do
things like this with a glance Of sym
pathy for the heartbroken mother, who
VINO stlll sobbing in the corridor.
iii tell you why I have to de
these things.
ITS because the state courts will
not do their duty and It's because
when they do it and send guilty
men to prison the governor turns
them out.
It's because when a man is convicted
either the governor or the parole board.
or somebody, I don't know who, turns
him out
ANGER GROWS AS
HE CONTINUES.
The Judge grew more stern as he con-
tinued angriIy:
And it's about time the people of
Indiana knew it.
That's why this court Is turned
into police court" and, as If by
way of an afterthOught, the court
added significantly, "snd a criminal
court
Term after term, year after year
these things have been going on here,
with nothing being done by the state
courts to check them, so that we have
the spectacle of these mere boys en-
gagged in such business"
The storm which finally broke with the
judges terrific arraignment Of the fail-
ure of the state authorities to maintain
law and order WAS brewing from the
moment court opened this morning.
Judge Levisi, 81, and Clifford H. VAN
deFburg, 22,w.ThoSe last place Of resi-
dence was Muncie, admitted that they
stole an automobile In Muncie April q
and drove 1t TO Dayton, where they were
arrested
ADMITTED TERM
AT "REFORMATORY."
Levisi admitted that he had served
eighteen months of an indeterminate term
at JeffersonviIle reformatory on q charge
of vehicle taking.
That's reformstory down there?"
the court oueried with emphasis on ..re-
formatory."
The prisoner replied in the affirmative.
suppose they had experts to examine
your head and determine you were rs-
formed?"
"Oh yes, sir
The court wanted to know who ex.
amined him and Vanderburg, the other
prisoner, who also was released from
Jeffersonville before completing a sem
tence on the same charge, glibly re-
sponded with the names and addresses
of the then parole board of the prison.
Yes" the court unused, stroking
his chin refiectively, ''we've had quite
number of the graduates of that
parole system In this court recently"
When the general litter had suksided
the court arched his eyebrows and asked
District Attorney Frederick VanNuys:
You don't seem to think much OF that
parole system, Mr.. vanNuys?"
well, sir, I don't" the district at
torney replied.
II don't think you think much more
of it than l do the judge remarked.
He then passed on to the next case
after sentencing the two youths to two
years each at Atlanta.
MINISTER" SANDERS SENT
UP FOR TWO YEARS.
Leslie Lee Sanders, the Missionary
Baptist minister" who was arrested last
November at his home in Iryington, on
a charge of using the mails in a scheme
to defraud, pleaded guilty and WIS SEN
fyUn off
the court guided him into a complete
account of his transactions, by which.
he admitted, he obtained between 5000
and $1,000 in four or five years.
Sanders advertised for loans, which.
he said, were to be used in carrying
on the work of THE Fire and Hammer
Evangelistic society"
When rich Christians in various parts
of the court sent him sums, ranging
from a few dollars TO thousands, he
would pretend to secure the loan with
a mortgage on his house, which he In
reality did not own, through fictitious
Indianapolis bank.
Pressed for his reason for straying
from the paths of righteousness while
urging others to hit the ''sawdust TRAIL"
Sanders let a few more or less genuine
tears drop and vowed that as a result
of factional fight his credentials as a
preacher had been revoked and the
church officials had bounded him from
one end of the country to the other for
the last four or five years, preventing
him from earning an honest living for his
family.
That's what you call 'brotherly love,
l suppose the judge remarked.
He admitted that he had been in
volved in two federal prosecutions In
the west on charges similar to these In
the present case.
Others who were sentenced on pleas
of guilty to indictments charging inter-
state transportation of stolen vehicles
were Ralph Rodea and Horace NJ. Jack
son, Hammond, two years at Atlanta
each, and Ofie Starks, negro, Detroit,
eighteen months at Atlanta.
Clifton O'Neal, former army cook, was
the leading man with Judge Anderson in
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