Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-15
OFFICERS ARREST
ONATTACK CHARGE
WILL Be SOUGHT
Detectives Accused of Using
Brass KnuckIes and Kick
ing Child in Face.
PRATT ORDERS INQUIRY
INTO POLICE CONDUCT
Beating and Abusive Language
Took Place During Theft Inves-
tigation, AFFIDAVIT Says.

tAS atAVu, AMuaV1t 0AJbs
Attorney Martin Mendelsohn, who has
filed with Maj. Henry @. Pratt afrdavits
charging Detectives Robert L. Jones and
Richard F. McCarty Of the tenth pre-
cinct with attacking two men and q 4
year-old child during the investigation
Of . reported theft at 1922 Spring road
two weeks ago. declared today that he
would seek warrants for their arrest.
Meanwhile the two detectives con-
tinued on duty today while police
inquiry ordered by Maj. Pratt was be-
ing conducted by Lieut.. j. E. Bobo
inspection district headquarters.
In the afidavits turned over to the
superintendent OF police by Mendel-
sohn the detectives are accused Of beat
ing Joseph Pesavage, q soldier attached
to Walter Reed Hospital, and Walter
Sawyer, Q resident at the Spring road
apartment. with brass knckles" and
using abusive language.
Charge Child Kicked.
The afidavits further declare that
Jones kicked 4-year-old Phyllis Sawyer
in the face when she grabbed the de-
tective by the leg in an effort to pull
Jones on of her father.
The trouble occurred. it Is said. when
Miss Elsie williams, divorce, return
ed from an automobile ride the night
Of June ~ and found her ".hilss
strewn all over the floor" and learned
rom O neighbor that a man had been
:een to Jump from the window.
A man who admitted he was in the
place" was overtaken when a search
was made of the nelghborhood and he
was brought lack to the apartment.
Miss Williams said she then called
police and asked them to send someone
to her home.
Six ut Residence.
With her at the time, she declared,
were her 9-year-old daughter Peggy,
Pcsavage, her brother-in-law and sisVer,
Mr.. and Mrs. Sawyer: their daughter
Phyllis, and a Mr. Ross, who dos not
figure in the case
The two detectives arrived soon after
her call, Miss williams declared in her
affidavit, but refused to take any notice
of the man they we're holding. We
amt bothering about any robbery or
| who broke in. We came up to see who
was disordsrly around here" she quoted
one Of the two as saying.
Jones, who had no. coat or hat on,
and whose shirt was sticking out, &C.
cording to the woman, told her ito shut
up or I will wrap this around your
liarns said. She added that McCarty
called them "a bunch Of rats, and that
he hit Pcsavage with pair OF brass
knuckles when the soldier objected to
his remark.
Abuse CHARGED.
The latter, in his af1idavit turned over
to Mai. Pratt by Mendelsohn, quoted
one Of the officers as saying:
This Is the place We have been look
ing at for q long time. All OF the
neighbors have been complaining about
parties going on in this apartment"
When Miss williams denied this,
Pesayage said, McCarty called her q
derogatory name.
Mrs. Sawyer, who lives In an adjoin-
ing apartment on the first floor. said In
her affidavit that Jones came up to
the door and said that he wanted all
this noise stopped around here, and
that he had received complaints for
six months. about my apartment being
noisy"
TeId 10 "Shut Mouth"
IT told him that had only been lir-
ing there for two months, and that
he could not have received complaints
for six months. I told him that there
was never any disorder around my
apartment and he told me to shut my
mouth"
At this juncture, according to Mrs.
Sawyer'S afadavit, her husband re-
buked Jones for speaking disrcspect-
fully to her, and the detective grabbed
him by the throat, choked him and
then knocked him unconscious with
brass knuckles.
Mrs. Sawyer said that both she and
her daughter tried to pull Jones away
from her husband, and that the detec-
tive kicked Phyllis In the face when she
pulled his leg. causing q bruise over
her eye.
Her husband did not fully regain con-
seriousness until is hours later, Mrs.
Sawyer said, but was hauled away in q
patrol wagon to the tenth precinct sta
ton with Pesav1ge and Miss Williams
and charged with disorderly conduct,
the robher suspect meanwhile being al
lowed to leave the apartment un.
molested.
The disorderly charges against the
trio were dismissed when heard before
Judge Gus A. Schuldt In Police Court
last Saturday.
Woman Charges Threat.
Pesavage said in his affidavit that
Sawyer was bleeding from cuts on
the head" when taken out to the patrol
wagon, while Miss Williams charged
that McCarty grabbed her coat and
tore 1t as they walked to the patrol.
McCarty, Miss williams declared,
also told her that you'll get these
muckles II you don't watch out" and
then stuck the knuckles right up in
front OF her nose.
Miss williams said that her daugh-
| ter's bank was the only thing missing
from the apartment following the al
! legged robbery.