Bell Fined $10. . . Lambert Freed; Echoes Fracas. . . Prosecuting Attorney and His Assistant Both Happened to be Witnesses in Unusual Case. . . Cut Up Her Shoes. . . Seth Brickhouse, Colored, Had His Revenge Because Girl Didn’t Know How to Treat a Fellow
--Echoes of a little fracas in the law offices of McMullan & LeRoy last Wednesday afternoon were heard in recorder’s court today, when the two participants, Mills E. Bell and W. Reginald Lambert, faced Trial Justice Sawyer on charges of having taken part in an affray. Bell pleaded guilty and was fined $10 and costs. Lambert denied the charge against him, and was acquitted.
An unusual situation presented itself in the case, in that both Prosecuting Attorney LeRoy and Assistant Prosecuting Attorney John H. Hall Jr. were witnesses, and therefore prosecution of the charges fell to the lot of Trial Justice Sawyer.
Lambert testified Bell hit him in the course of an argument over a contract, and he fell into the glass front of a bookcase, sustained a small cut on the left ear. He said Bell struck him three times altogether and that he did not hit back, merely having tried to protect himself. Bell claimed he hit Lambert only after the latter had raised his fist threateningly.
--Seth Brickhouse, colored, charged with assault on Annie Dorkins, also colored, and with having injured property belonging to her, was fined $15 and costs. The woman asserted Brickhouse, a former suitor, went to her home yesterday, threatened to kill her, and finally cut to pieces with an axe a pair of shoes he had given her. She said he threatened to treat her just as he had treated the shoes.
Brickhouse denied everything except that he had destroyed the shoes, explaining that she wouldn’t pay him for them, and holding that he therefore had a right to cut them up. “That woman ain’t scared of anything,” he told the court.
Later, in response to a question, he said he had quit paying attentions to her because she “didn’t know how to treat a fellow.”
During the hearing of this case, there was much mention of a negro “conjure doctor” who was said to be living in the house in which the Dorkins woman made her home, and who was declared to have made snakes come out of the eyes of a girl living in the neighborhood.
--The case of Enoch Williams, colored, employed at the Crystal Ice & Coal Corporation’s plant, charged with larceny and with having engaged in a game of chance, was continued to tomorrow morning.
--An action in which S.N. Dulin had been summoned to appear on a reckless driving charge was continued to Monday morning two weeks hence.
James Elliott, charged with assault with a deadly weapon, was let off with a fine of $5 and costs when it was brought out that he fired a gun, but did no particular harm to any one.
--Vance Carpenter, colored, paid a fie of $5 and costs for simple drunkenness.
--A Sunday afternoon poker game in the “park” back of the Elizabeth City Cotton Mill resulted in the appearance in court of TJ. Cooper, M.G. Taylor, A.P. Twiford and Claude Copeland on charges of gaming. They paid fines of $10 and costs each. Mr. Cooper was fined an additional $10 and costs on a charge of having a small quantity of liquor in his possession, in a pint bottle.
--Gary Farmer, colored, accused of having been drunk and disorderly, and with assault in connection with having bombarded the restaurant of Wilson Winslow, colored, at Harney and Cypress streets, with pop bottles Sunday afternoon, was fined a total of $15 and costs. It was in evidence that he had expressed a wish for a “clear corner” and that he had gratified it by the time he finished the barrage. The restaurant is opposite well known Red Onion Hotel.
--A charge of assault on a female, preferred against Jim Spruill, colored, was dismissed, there being little or no evidence of wrong-doing on his part.
From the front page of The Daily Advance, Elizabeth City, N.C., Monday evening, April 26, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92074042/1926-04-26/ed-1/seq-1/
