New-York tribune., 1921-03-19
Flood Guilty Of
Second Degree
Manslaughter
Jury Asks Mercy for Police.
man Accused of Staying
Boy; Deliberated Over
an Hour and a Half
First Whitman Conviction
10 Be Sentenced Thursday:
Maximum Penalty Is is
Years and $1,000 Fine

The flrst conviction returned in the
Whitman investigation of the Hv]an
administration was recorded yester-
day in Part v of General Sessions
wnen jury found Patrolman Cornelius
j. Flood guilty of manslaughter in the
second degree.
Flood, with Robert A. O'Brien, both
formerly attached to the West Fortv-
seventh Street police station as pa
trolmen. was charged with the killing
OF James Gushing, sixteen years old.
on the roof of a tenement in West
Flftieth Street in July 1918.
The case was investigated bv AS
sistant District Attorney Joyce in 1918.
at the direction of District ATTORNEY
Swami, and the evidence he submitted
before the Grand Jury at that time
failed to result in an Indictment Icing
returned against either officer.
Although the family Of the murdered
child appealed to the authorities re-
peatedly no decisive action was, taken
in the case until it was revived as a
result of The Tribune's investigation
of the Police Department which re-
suited in the appointment by District
Attorney Swami of Ex-Governor Charles
5. Whitman as head of general in
qulry into every phase of the Hylan
administration.
Charge Is Reduced
In summing up the testimony taken
IN the present trial Mr.. Whitman
limited that the matter wasl not CON
sldered seriously when it came to the
attention of the District Attorneys Of
flee in 1918. At that time an ap-
parently superficial examination of
witnesses resulted in no indictments,
although in one-third Of the time con-
sumed in the investigation three years
ago Mr.. Whitman was able to obtain
true bills against Flood and O'Brien
charging, murder in the first degree.
This charge was dismissed by Judge
Mott on Wednesday as it applied to
Flood, and the case went to the jury
yesterday on the count of granddaughter
in the first or second degree.
After the conviction yesterday Pa
trolman Flood was taken back to the
Tombs after Judge Mott had announced
that he would not pronounce sentence
until Thursday afternoon. The maxi
mum penalty for the crime of which
Flood stands convicted is fifteen years
in Jail and $1,000 fine.
The prosecutions case against Flood
indicated that he. in company with Pa
trolman O'Brien, at that time his su-
perior officer, had gone to the roof of
522 West Fiftieth Street on the after
noon of Sunday, July ID, to investigate
a complaint which alleged that boys
were shooting craps there.
Pleads 1t Was Accident
Both men were in plain clothes at
the time and, according to Floods story
told in the trial just ended, he drew
his revolver just before he stepped out
on the roof top. He did this, he said,
because he suspected that he was going
to be attacked. He had difficulty in
opening the trapdoor leading to the
roof, he said, and when he finally
opened it he stumbled and his gun ex-
ploded prematurely. O'Brien, mean
while, had gained the roof top by way
of the house next door, and he is said
to have fired his revolver Immediately
after hearing the report of Floods
This report, Flood had testified, caused
him to fire his gun second time with
view to attracting the attention of
the patrolman on post.
The witnesses called by the prose
(Continued on pass three)