The Washington times., 1929-10-28
SACKETT COMMITTEE ASKED TO HURRY D. C. INVESTIGATION
PANTAGES HELD.
GUILTY, FACES
PRISON

LOS ANGELES. Oct. %
IN.S.) - Found guilty Of
criminally assaulting 17-year-
old Eunice Pringle, Alexander
Pantages today faces prison
term in San Quentin Peniten-
tiary from one TO fifty years,
The Jury Of seven women ard
five men returned the verdict seal
ing the millionaire theater mag
mates fate last night after being
out a trif1e more than So hours.
The jurymen signalled the court
bailff at 800 p. m. That yer.
dict had been reached. Ten min.
utes after they had flied into the
jury box they pronounced Pantagss
guilty Of an assault on the grill
dancer who applied to him for
booking on his vaudeville circuit,
Leniency Suggested
Their verdict contained no com.
promise. 1t was within the jurys
province TO determine whether Pah-
tages' punishment should be not
more than one year in county jail
or up to half century behind San
Quentin bars. They decreed the
limit.
One gesture of leniency was
made. In their formal written
verdict they added one extra line,
a recommendation for clemency.
But the law takes no cognizancs
of this.
When Judge Charles Fricke SEN
tences Pantages next Friday morn.
inE at $50 o'clock, he must sen,
tence him to the prison term set
by statute, That statute reads,
without any compromise. not more
than so years in States prison.
Pantages' attorneys will file no
ton for q new trial. which will act
as automatic stay of sentence until
the motion is argued at some later
date which the court will set.
Pantages ExpressionIess
Pantages. his face drawn and eX
pressionless was whisked up the
Hall of Justice elevator to the
county jail within q quarter of an
hour after the verdict. He was
locked in a county Jail cell over
night.
The verdict that sent Pantages
to prison last night for the charge
brought against him by EuniCe
PrinGIe came after just q little more
tnan II hours of actual jury room
deliberatiOn.
The jury was given the case at
AIS a. m. last Friday. They could
1y,eT
and We're locked up. All day Satur-
day, after returning from their
locked quarters in downtown
hotel. the y struggled again with
the case-and again in vain, for at
. n. m. tired out, they were again
sent to their hotel without the
slightest indication that verdict
was near
Yesterday morning they came
back to court 4 little before 10.
They asked at once for reading
Of the testimony of the defense doc
tors. who testified that they had
examined the girl four days after
the Pantages affair and found no
evidence to support the charges.
II was plain that the ury split
was based on tbs credibtllty of the
story Eunlce had told Of the ses-
sion with Pantages in the mezzanine
floor conference room Of his thea
ter building August 9.
Credit Her Story
Evidently the re-reading Of her
testimony satisfied them she was
telling the truth, and by that token,
that Pantaees was guilty.
At 7:55 last night the testimony
reading was finished. And the
Jurors filed hack to their jury room.
Less than an hour and three quar-.
ters later they came back with their
verdict.
The courtroom last night was
filled with spectators. Pantages, his
face inscrutable, was sitting at one
end of the defense counsel table
when the jury filed in.
Eunlce Pringle was not in the
courtroom
Pantages sat motionless at the
word guilty was uttered. Mrs.
Dixie Martin adopted daughter Of
Fain+cS