Evening star., 1953-04-26
.Curran Finds
200 Cases Tied
To Freed Youth
Judge Plans Check
Of Probation Report
For Crime Record
By Howard |. Dutkin

By Howard L. Dutkin
Judge Edward M. Curran, who
Friday granted probation to a
youth implicated by police in
200 housebreakings, said yester-
day he would "take another
look" at the probation report
tomorrow.
The judge said further that
the first he knew about the
housebreakings was when he
read about them in The Star
yesterday after the sentencing
in the U. S. District Court for
hte District of Columbia.
He said he didn't notice any
mention of the crimes or Of a
previous robbery charge against
the defendant in a report pre-
pared for him by the probation
officer.
Report Is Secret.
But George w. Howard, assis-
tant to the chief probation officer,
said both elements were in
the report which recommended
against probation. The full re-
port, always held in strict
secrecy, was not available to the
press.
The defendant, Elmer R. Drew,
20, had received a one-to-three-
year suspended sentence and was
placed on probation for three
years after pleading guilty to a
single charge Of housebreaking
and larceny.
United States Attorney Leo A.
Rover said he would instruct AS
sistant United States Attorney
John Conliffe to see if cases
might be made against Drew on
the basis of police allegations
that Drew had verbally admitted
to the 200 housebreakings. Mr..
Rover said he would have a
statement tomorrow.
Only one of the cases, that
which led to the guilty plea, had
been sent by police to the United
States Attorneys Office for pre-
sentation to the grand jury.
Evidence Lacking.
Detective Mahlon Pitts of No.
3 precinct. who investigated the
housebreakings said the cases
were not sert over for prose-
cution because of lack of evi-
dence. He said the only tangible
evidence police had was Drew's
own verbal admissions.
The crime which brought the
suspended sentence was that of
breaking in the Remedial Educa-
tion Center, 1900 block of New
Hampshire avenue NV, last
November. Equipment stolen
included typewriters, fans, a die
tation machine and picture pro-
jectorS.
Upon his guilty plea, Drew was
eligible for a maximum sentence
of eight years and four months
to Is years.
Considered Poor Risk
In commenting on the proba-
ton sentence Judge Curran said
"the only recollection I have is
that the probation officer re-
ported the defendant technically
eligible for parole but did not
recommend it because he re-
garded Drew as poor risk"
The jurist remarked that he
couldn't say just what he'd have
done had he known Drew had
admitted other housebreakings
but said "1'll take another look"
at the probation report tomor-
row.
"All + had before me was the
one case" Judge Curran said.
''The defendant had no previous
felony convictions. The only real
solution lies in multiple indict-
ments."
Defense Attorney Robert A.
Fields pleaded the youth of the
defendant and asserted Drew was
going to return home to live with
his mother and stepfather. He
said two persons had offered the
youth a job.
Attended School Here.
Mr.. Howard said that Drew
had come to Washington from
near Charlottesville, Va, as a
child. He attended public schools
here but dropped out at about
the ninth grade, the probation
officer said.
Drew had been convicted De-
cember 10. 1852 of the yoke
robbery of a cafe employe. SUBJ
sequently Judge Edward A.
Tamm granted him a new trial
on a plea by defense counsel that
certain alibi witnesses were not
called by the attorney who orig
inally represented Drew.
Last March "a. Drew was
found innocent Of the robbery
charge by a jury in the United
States District Court for the Dis
trict Of Columbia after several
witnesses testified he was at a
party at the time the robbery
was committed. Drew did not
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