November 23, 1916
Transcribed from: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/104714015/
A Panel of Forty new Jurors, Four of Them Women, Summoned
FIRST TIME IN THE HISTORY OF COUNTY WOMEN HAVE BEEN ASKED TO SERVE ON DISTRICT COURT JURY – DAVE CLINE IS ACCUSED OF BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATH OF 15-YEAR-OLD MARY GLASS.
When the case of the State vs. Dave Cline, charged with being responsible for the death of Mary Glass, was called in district court this morning it was found that it would be necessary to summon another jury panel and a special venire of forty additional jurors was ordered. The names were drawn this morning and the sheriff’s force got busy at once summoning them. They were commanded to report forthwith, an order that caused consternation in a number of households.
Among the names drawn were those of four women – Mrs. Milton Cook of Cherryvale, Mrs. J. B. Trinder, Cherryvale, Mrs. Kate Batchelor, Independence city, and Sarah A. Higginbotham, Cherryvale – the first time in the history of the county that women have been called for jury service in the district court, although women have been used as jurors in a number of justice court cases in various parts of the county.
It is not believed a jury can be secured before evening and it is not anticipated that work will start on the case before tomorrow morning. The business of winnowing out the jurors was started this morning, however, with the nine or ten men still left in the box.
Cline was in court, accompanied by his brother, Abe, and his attorneys, Charles Bucher and Charles Welch, both very keen attorneys and hard fighters. On the other side of the table sat J. W. Holdren, deputy county attorney, who had charge of the preliminary investigation, County Attorney Ise, Archie Neale, a noted attorney of Labette county, employed by the friends of the dead girl, and M. D. L. Cox, a well known colored attorney of Coffeyville, also employed as special counsel.
Cline is charged on two counts. The first accuses him of murder in the first degree; the other charges manslaughter in the second degree. Conviction on the first count would mean life imprisonment, and on the second three to five years in the penitentiary. A negro physician was recently arrested in Kansas City charged with being an accessory to the crime. he was formerly located in Coffeyville but left soon after the preliminary hearing.
The state will attempt to prove that Mary Glass, the 15-year-old colored girl, employed as a domestic at the home of Abe Cline, brother of the defendant, was in a delicate condition, that she was last seen in company with Dave Cline, that an abortion was performed at his instance and that death ensuing for both mother and child, the bodies of the two were sunk in the river, being first bound to stones with baling wire. The bodies were found by fishermen weeks after the disappearance of the girl.
Cline protests his innocence of the crimes charged or insinuated against him and will put up a bitter fight to prove it. He comes of a wealthy and very highly regarded family, and this has added greatly to the interest in the case.
The colored people of Coffeyville were deeply stirred by the disappearance of the girl and the discovery of her body and have assisted in securing evidence and in hiring counsel.
The crowd in the court room became so large this afternoon that it was necessary to rope off the entryways and permit no one go in unless they had official business there.
The work of securing a jury was proceeding slowly.