Evening star., 1950-08-08
Williams Sentencing
Put Off for Study Of
Anonymous Letters

The sentencing of Robert Snead
Williams, jr., As, former District
school teacher convicted of in
decent exposure, was postponed
again yesterday to give police fur
ther opportunity to investigate
| two anonymous letters from a
person "confessing" he committed
the act.
Municipal Court Judge Aubrey
B. Fennell continued the case for
a month, after defense attorneys
protested that police. although
given the letters to check month
ago, had not compared certain
partial" f1ngerprints on the let
ters with the police fingerprint
file.
The defense also asked that po-
lice be directed to compare the
handwriting in the letters with
samples of the handwriting Of
known sex pervertS.
Asks Handwriting Samples.
The brief hearing was marked
by a demand by Assistant Cor
poration Counsel Clark F. King
that handwriting samples and fin
gerprints of the Rev. A. Powell
Davies. pastor OF the sAii Souls
Unitarian Church. and the de-
fendant's daughter, be submitted
for analysis. Mr.. King also called
for such samples from all defense
witnesses at the four-day trial.
DR.. Davies was a character witness
for Williams, a trustee OF the
church.
Mr. King said he would not ask
for samples from Municipal Court
Judge Frank H. Myers. who was a
character witness.
/ The city prosecutor made the
demand, after Defense Attorney
Paul Connolly complained Mr..
King had not co-operated with
him.
Mr.. King protested he had been
cooperative and pointed out he
had furnished the defense Win
the anonymous letters.
Calls For Cooperation.
Lets have cooperation from
the defense" he said. Il want
samples from DR.. Davies, the de-
fendant's daughter, and some
other people I will name. Let's
not have this cooperation one
sided" -.s .-
Mr.. King later told reporters
he was referring to the pastor OF
the All Souls Church and would
ask samples from the defense
witnesses. He said he and his
staff had supplied their finger
prints for use by the police in the
Investigation and said he thought
the defense should make the same
gesture.
Pvt. A. B. Masters of the police
identification bureau told Judge
Fennell he had been given the
letters to check and had iden-
tilted one print as that OF AS
sistant Corporation Counsel Jo-
seph Lowther, who had handled
the letter. He said there also are
some partial prints" on one let
ter, which may be clear enough
to establish identification. He
said, however, he had not checked
these partial prints with the police
fingerprint file because he had
not been instructed to do so.
Letters Received in June.
Mr.. King said he had under
stood that only Mr.. Lowther's
print was clear enough to iden-
tify.
The anonymous letters were re-
ceived by Mr.. King in June. The
writer said he. and not Williams,
had exposed himself in front OF
two teen-age girls near American
University on April 10. The writ
er said he had been guilty of
several similar offenses in the
area and described the complain
ing witnesses. Mr.. King said,
however, a police handwriting
expert reported the letters might
have been written by a female.
Williams, a lumber estimator,
was arrested by a motorcycle po-
liceman, after the girls PORTED
him out. Defense attorneys nave
protested Williams is the victim
of mistaken identity.