People v. Davis (156 A.D. 279, 1913)

Dowling, J.:

The defendant has been convicted of the crime of attempted extortion, for which he was jointly indicted with one Eben J. Owen. In August, 1912, Viola Dawson, a girl of seventeen years of age, pleaded guilty of the crime of forgery in having procured the cashing of a check for twenty-five dollars, which she claimed she had been paid for wages by Mrs. Eva B. Oar-roll, the complaining witness herein, in whose employ she had been. Sentence was suspended upon Said Dawson, and she was paroled in the custody of the probation officer and one Mrs. Piper. The codefendant Owen, who claims to have been engaged in missionary work, was present in court at the time of the sentence and took the Dawson girl from the courtroom, not, however, to Mrs. Piper, in whose custody she was to be placed, but to the officé of his attorney, one Carl Fowler. There she made a certain statement to Fowler in the presence of Owen, as a result of which she returned the next day and signed and verified on August 31, 1912, an affidavit wherein she made a charge of rape against Earl Carroll, the son of the said Mrs. Eva B. Carroll, and charges of complicity in said rape and of grossly immoral conduct against Mrs. Carroll, as well as further charges of immorality against said Mrs. Carroll’s married daughter. Earlier on the day that said written statement was made, Owen telephoned to Stillwell Conner, the brother of Mrs. Carroll, asking him to come to his apartment at 29 Broadway, where he was temporarily acting as janitor, and upon said Conner going to the apartment he was received by Owen, who took him into the parlor; there then being present, besides Owen and Conner, Mrs. Owen, defendant Davis, and Viola Dawson.

Shortly afterwards the three last-named persons left the apartment, Davis, stating he was quite busy and that Mrs. Owen was taking the Dawson girl to Mis. Piper. After their departure Owen asked Conner: “Why don’t you ask me something, ask me some' questions?” Upon Conner professing ignorance as to what kinds of questions he was to ask, Owen told him, “ Ask me what the alderman is doing arid Mrs. Owen and Viola.” Davis was then an alderman of the city of New York. Conner repeated the question as suggested, whereupon Owen informed him that they had gone to the office of an attorney named Fowler, where an affidavit was being prepared which was very detrimental to Mrs. Carroll and her family. At Owen’s suggestion Conner called up his sister, Mrs. Carroll, when Owen said to her that an affidavit was being made that was very detrimental to “Sister Eva’’and her family. “Sister Eva ” was the manner in which both the defendants Owen and Davis referred to Mrs. Carroll. Thereafter a newspaper man was invited by Owen to attend a conference with Conner, and Owen conversed with him in Conner’s presence about a “ good story” that was shortly to appear about a “well-known woman.” In the meantime the defendant Davis and Mrs. Owen had taken the Dawson girl to the office of Owen’s attorney, where the affidavit hereinbefore referred to had been made. On September fourth Conner and the defendant Davis had a conversation in which the latter stated that the former’s sister had promised, when he first met her, to help him to go to Congress, and that he was now in a position where she had to do it. Davis having retired after this conversation, Owen took Conner over to Fowler’s office, and while Conner was waiting to secure admission Davis appeared and entered the private room, to which subsequently Conner was admitted. At this interview, in the presence of the attorney, both Davis and Owen stated that they knew that the statements contained in the affidavit of the Dawson woman were true.

It. appears that Mrs. Carroll and Owen had been acquainted for about two years, he having helped to place her husband in an institution for the cure of inebriates (that being one of Owen’s fields of activity), while she had known the defendant Davis about two months. There had been negotiations between them in reference to certain business propositions, none of which eventuated. Their familiarity Was such that both the defendants, as has been said, referred to her as “Sister- Eva,” while she referred to Owen as “ Brother Eben.” Meantime telephonic communications had passed between the parties, including one with the defendant Davis in which he had told her that the Dawson girl had made a “detrimental vulgar affidavit of forty pages,” and that he and Owen wanted to help her out of it, and that they would have to “ get together on that right away.” Davis also suggested that she should help him to go to Congress, and that when he got there he could do almost anything;for her. Later, she had telephonic communications with Davis at Pahst’s restaurant, when he found fault because she had not kept an appointment to meet him, and when he made an appointment for the following evening at the same place. 'In the course of this conversation he said that if she did not get the statement suppressed quickly they would all be ruined (referring to her and her family), and the Associated Press' would get the story.

Meantime she had communicated with the district attorney’s office, and advised them of the condition of affairs, and' her subsequent actions were in accordance with the plan of action agreed upon with the authorities. On the evening of September fourth, when Mrs. Carroll arrived by appointment at Pabst’s restaurant, the defendant Davis was waiting for her at the door. He took her hand and said: “Sister, I am awfully glad you come; and we can get everything straightened out to-night.”

To this she assented. They then ordered dinner, when Owen