The Miami times. [volume] (Miami, Fla.) 1923-current, 1951-12-29

Christmas weekend holidays, re-
suited in an after Christmas docket
of 70 cases in Judge L. E.
Thomas Municipal Court, Wednes-
day morning. The cases covered a
wide variety of offenses, and all
parts of the city, including, Coco
nut Grove, Liberty City and down.
town Miami were well represent
ed among the defendants.
Probably it was the occasion it
self, or probably it was simply his
"new DEAL" Judge Thomas GER
tainly threw the book" again and
again in melting various senteces
to the defendants. Fines and SEN
fences ranged from $40 or 4 days
to 10 days, 5000 or an additional
"A days. All things considered, it
was another great day in the short
but interesting history of our local
municipal court.
Several cases may be listed as
high light trials of the day among
these were the following:
The case of Joseph ellis, who
was charged with lewd and lacivi-
Gus behavior. Testimony in the
case revealed the fact that ellis
got intoxicated to some extent, last
weekend, and apparently without
any provocation went to the home
of a well known Miami lady, who
is a bed-ridden invalid, took off
his clothes and was found by the
lady's daughter in bed with the
mother, upon her return home fol-
lowing a short business trip. The
mother, unable to sit up in bed
or to move about without the aid
of someone else, was pleading
with ellis to "leave her alone"
The daughter, who happened up
just in time to present an attack,
immediately called the police.
ellis, who is middle aged
man, claimed that he was so
drunk" that he was not conscious
of what he was doing. But Judge
Thomas did not give much credit
to ellis Inconsistencies, because
he sentenced ellis to 10 days,
$3.50 or an additional 60 days, aftef
a stern warning to never let an act
like this happen again.
Another highlight case, which
was the case of Geneva Harris and
her daughter, Lucille Bennett,
both of whom were charged with
diSCrederly conduct, creating dis
turbances. 1t was a case of mother
against daughter or vice versa.
Testimony in the case, presented
by Officer Sammy Moore for the
city, revealed that Geneva Harris
and her daughter, Lucille who is
% years old, were found squaring
off at each other, and tussling over
the control of a hammer, in front
of their home at NV 4th court
near 20 tn st. Both were. using
strong language and large crowd
had been attracted to the free
for-all" The daughter was Just
about to get the better of the me
lee, when the officers arrived on
the scene and prevented further
trouble.
In court, both mother and
daughter claimed that they were
not fighting at all - they said
that they were merely playing as
they often do. But again, the stern
Judge refused to believe the
stories" of the defendants, In
view of the one told by the ar
resting officers. Judge Thomas
fined mother and daughter $40
or 4 days.
The third and probably most
sensational of the highlight
cases, was case that was orig
inally tried on December 8, but
on which sentence was delayed
until Wednesday morning, in or
der that defendant may have
ample time to take care of her
personal affairs before beginning
to serve her sentence.
This was the case of
Carroll Lewis, a middle aged wo-
man of 373A NV 10th terrace,
who was charged with selling il
legal moonshine whiskey. At the
original trial, the defendant ap-
peared with an infant baby,
which she claimed was her own
child. She was found guilty and
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