New-York tribune., 1921-03-25
flood Is Given
Years; Court
Scores Police
s.dse Mott, in Sentencing
PssroIman for killing
pov. Decries Gun Play
I'd Brutality by Officers
h.fendant Freed on Bail
r.rifcate of Reasonable
Doubt Granted Him and
O'Bricn; Bond $4,000

>. unnecessary brutality and the un
s.rnnted display anI use Of guns
.irb, and blackjacks by Judge Charlie:
= Mott, sitting in Part v Of Genera
s..,ions, yesterday, in sentencing Pa
,,n,man Cornelius j. Flood to serv.
,,sm three to ten years in state.
lion for the killing of sixteen-year
III James Cushing in July, 1918.
''I rInod was convicted Of manslaughte,
IN the second degree last Friday, hi!
Indictment having been voted by thu
srtrsordinary grand jury presiding
sssr the Whitman investigation of the
palics Department and the Hylan ad
ninistration.
pstfplman Robert A. O'Brien was in
s;eted with Flood and is awaiting tria
ON similar charge.
Both policemen were released las
wont on $4,000 bail each, Flood on /,
,sTtihcate of reasonable doubt, granted
hv Judge Mott after the conviction, ant
iI'prien because the Indictment pend
;n- against him had been reduced from
murder in the first degree to man
Slaughter in the second.
The trial of Flood was prosecuted BY
farmer Governor Charles S. Whitman
,ided BY Assistant District Attorne,
George n. Brothers.
May Investigate Grand Jury
IN view of Judge Motifs arraignmen
II the Police Department, based >on th'
iaets disclosed in the Flood trial, i
vss said at the Criminal Courts Build
;ns Yesterday that the failure of AS
sstant District Attorney Joyce and the
rand jury OF July, 1913, before which
:hs case was first presented, to find in
lictments against Flood and O'Brien
would become phase of Mr.. Whit
nsn's future Investigations.
During the trial of Flood it wa
,hown that the statements made by th'
Witnesses to Mr.. Joyce and the 191'
rand Jury did not tally at all will
ihose they made before Judge Mott. Ii
many cases the witnesses denied tina
taey made statements read to then
from stenographic transcripts of thu
1918 proceedings and in number O
instances the testimony in the tria
Jus. ended was at complete varianc,
With that alleged to have been givel
10 Mr. Joyce three years ago.
Both Flood and O'Brien wer'
charged with having gone to the roo
Of tenement in West Fiftieth Stree
On Sunday, July Ia, 1918, and free
shots at number of boys who wer'
engaged in flying pigeons there. Tw'
uf the boys were arrested and Gushing
Who attempted to escape across ad
Joining roofs, was killed by one of sew
ers shots fired by the two police
men.
In the course of the Flood trial !;
xss brought out and admitted by tn
accused patrolman that he fired on,
.hot and O'Brien two. Cushing wa
climbing for slightly higher roof whel
SS-caliber bullet struck hinin tn
back in the vicinity Of the tenth I'll
end came out just beneath his cola
bone. He staggered few feet and fel
dead.
Example to Police Force
IN pronouncing sentence upon Floo
yesterday Judge Mott declared that tn
conviction was a "salutary example t
the police force" A. the same tim
the court took occasion to denounc
the police practice of extort'ng con
iessians from prisoners by means o
bsutality. Judge Mott said that if tn
pdIice have to break the law in orde
to preserve it the Police Departmen
had proved itself failure. He an
nounced that the verdict was one mucl
needed in the community.
At the time of the shooting botl
Flood and O'Brien were patrolmen at
taehed to the West Forty Stree
station. The conviction is the frs
recorded in the Whitman investigation
of the Police Department..
Flood was defended by William j
Fallon and Eugene F. McGee, who ar
also counsel for O'Brien.
In pronouncing sentence Judge Not
said:
1T is a hard duty upon the court X
impose sentence in this case. The de
fendant has been convicted by a jury
That jury, before finding its verdict
had before it the facts of the defend
ants excellent previous character ane
the further fact that he had been only
five or six weeks in the police force a.
the time of the shooting.
"The court has received number o.
letters asking that clemency be shown
! do not feel that counsel is correct II
his contention that there was no mora
wrong. There was moral wrong in the
way they used their guns.
No Need for Shooting
4Here We have two able~bodied po
lice officers confronting eight or ter
boys, some in short pants, on roof
The officers burst on the roof witt
drawn guns in their hands and shoot
Unfortunately. The verdict was one
much needed in this community as al
example to the police force. There was
absolutely no need for the drawing
and discharging of the revolvers.
The appearance of some defendants
~ these courts Indicates that the police
20 too far. Only the other day de-
33endant who was arraigned before me
mad two ribs broken and his head cut
open. He received these injuries al
Ne time of his arrest, and the police
aasn's explanation was that the mar
asa tried to pull away.
(, Numerous other cases have come te
Ms attention of the judges in these
ssoufts in which confessions were OBJ
u.lned from defendants, and investiga
s'on has shown that these confessions
sseie signed only after the defendants
nad been brutally beaten.
~ police officers cannot keep order
sAaout resorting to undue and un-
y .msarysnted violence on their own part
= sney have to break the law them
\ .ssslves in order to preserve the law
'aea the police force is failure"