Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-05-27

I GU boys are all athletes and In
your high school sports have been
taught fair play, and cannot believe
that your conception of fair play is
nine against one" was the statement
made by Recorder Arthur F. Tiffin
in the Augusta municipal court Tues
dya morning when he sentenced each
OF the nine youths charged with as
sault and battery on Walter C. Rip
ley, a Cony High school senior, to
serve 80 days in jail, and then sus-
pended sentence and placed each of
the youthful respondents under pro-
baton for one year. with orders to
report to Edwin Bullock, county pro-
baton officer. each month.
AS the words of Recorder Tiffin
| resounded through the crowded court
room, a woman, one of the fond
parents of the lads concerned in the
unfortunate episode, gasped and
cried out. She recovered her COM
posture when she understood that the
boys would not have to serve the Jail
terms.
L do not believe that any one of
you really intended to hurt Walter
Ripley" continued Recorder Tiffin,
but it is what happened as the re-
suit of your unrestrained activities
that impresses the court in this case
fou must be brought down to earth
ana made to realize that you can not
play fast and loose, with utter dis
regard OF law and consequences"
The nine prominent Cony High
SCHOOL vrrh
| heard jointly yesterday morning as
the result of the disastrous ending
| to what was conceived and intended
as practical joke on the night of
Monday, May Is. when Young Ripley
was carried to his home in a semi
unconscious and delirious condition.
! were John Gilmore, Cony senior and
| football player; Theodore Lishness.
track star and hockey player, a MEM
| per OF the junior class; Myron Hill.
ton. q sophomore; Henry Gardner of
the Cony varsity hockey team,
ciassmate of Ripley; Bernard Lapi-
aus, Cony FOOTBALL basketball and
oasenall pitcher. a member of the
sophomore class; John McCauley. a
Junior. and star backfield man on the
Red and White football team: HUI
pert Merrick. Jr., manager Of last
seasons basketball squad, another
senior; Anthony Murphy, Cony. '27:
and kenneth DinSmore, a Junior. and
football letter man.
The story of the fateful episode of
q week ago was frankly told by James
kenneth Dinsmore, Hubert ]. Merrick.
Jr.. Theodore Lishness and John Nc
Cauley. Former County Attorney Wal
ter M. Sanborn was In court to repre-
sent young Dinsmore, while Attorney
FRANK G. harrington protected the in
terests of the other eight respondents,
and Attorney James A. Comedian, bas-
ketball coach at Cony High school, also
had chair inside the docket and acted
as counsellor and adviser to the boys.
Walter Ripley, the schoomate who
was injured when the nine students
kidnapped" and carried him out into
the country in the Elmore automobile,
was the first States witness and told
of the incidents of that Tuesday eve-
ming. He said that he had gone to the
Adams home on Green street about
7.30 that evening and while there had
responded to a call at the door when
he was informed by John Elmore that
someone had moved his stripped Ford
car around onto the next street Rip
ley went with Gilmore to locate the
machine, when he was seized by three
of the other boys and bundled into
Elmore's big automobile. They COW
cred his head with blanket, accord
ing to Ripley's testimony, and he was
afraid OF suffocation. He was not
afraid that the boys would do him
bodily harm and protested good ma
turedly, even vixen his captors made
talk about the long walk home and of
throwing him into the lake."
Ripley testified that something
struck his side forcibly and that then
he was struck on the head. The next
thing he was conscious Of was when
he was in his own home under the care
Of DR.. Lathbury.
Donald Dewar. Charles Thorpe and
John Diplock told of their part in the
evenings doings. which was in taking
the injured Ripley boy to the Dewar
home after they had met the group in
the other car on State street. Edward
Ripley, father of the injured boy, tes-
titled to being called into the case by
young Dewar's parents, and Of the
subsequent events up to and including
the apprehension Of the nine students
concerned in the early hours of last
Tuesday morning. and the taking out
Of the warrants for assault and bat
terry.
Following the hearing In the munich
pal court room, which was witnessed
by nearly a hundred friends Of the
young men concerned. the nine Cony
students whose effort at q practical
Joke had brought them into court,