Fleeta Watkins Burke and her mother, Mrs. Mary Watkins who several months ago figured in the disappearance of Lucile Rurhe, small child of Fleeta Burke, when the father was attempting to gain custody of the child through the courts, yesterday morning were again in the toils of the law.
An order signed by Presiding Judge T.J. Shaw of Greensboro, ordering that the Burke woman and her mother be required to give bond in the sum of $1,000 and appear before the court and show cause why they shall not be adjudged in contempt. The proceeding was instituted by attorneys for Dr. R.H. Burke, father of the child.
In the proceeding Dr. Burke sets out that recently the mother of the child has publicly stated she would not tell where the little girl was and “prays the honorable court to rule against Mary E. Watkins and Fleeta Burke and show cause why each should not be punished for willful and deliberate, continuing contempt of court and be required to produce the body of the child.” It is further claimed they may repeat their flight to escape the judgment of the court.
Dr. Burke alleges that on or about July 11, 1918, Fleeta Burke was indicted in the police court of the city of Asheville, under a statutory charge and sentenced to a term of not more than three years in the county reformatory. At the next term of the court, it was stated, the father filed a petition asking for the custody of the child, “when said Fleeta Burke fled and she left said infant daughter of the affiant with her mother, one Mary Watkins, and upon order of the court, Mary Watkins produced the body of said child in court and the matter care, custody and tutelage of said child was fully gone into and heard and determined by Honorable T.B. Finley presiding.”
In other portions of the position it is charge that pending the hearing, the court permitted the respondent, Mary Watkins, to hold the child subject to the court orders upon giving bond in the sum of $500, as a surety that she would produce the child and obey the orders of the court.
When it became apparent the court would award the custody of the child to the father, according to the affiant, said child was spirited away and carried from the state of North Carolina and has been in a distant state since that time, it is said.
It is further stated that the mother has been in constant communication with Fleeta Burke and the child moved “secretly from place to place.” The child for a time was kept with the mother at a logging camp in Georgia, the petition alleges.
The proceedings instituted yesterday are of a civil nature. An indictment against the Burke woman was recently returned by the grand jury. She is charged with a statutory offense and the case is to be tried early next week, it is understood.
Burke Hearing Set for Monday
Fleeta Burke and her other, Mrs. Mary Watkins, of Black Mountain, have been summoned to appear before Presiding Judge T.J. Shaw in the superior court on Monday and show cause why they shall not be adjudged in contempt of court. A petition was filed in court Tuesday by Dr. R.H. Burke who wants the custody of the small child, which he says is being kept out of sight by the Burke woman.
From the News-Record, Marshall, N.C., Jan. 20, 1922
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