Friday, 6th June 1913 Jail Sentence for Woman Convicted in Vice Crusade

Friday, June 6th, 1913

Mrs. N. Powell, Charged With Operating Disorderly House on Spring Street, Gets Heavy Sentence

HAD ENJOINED CHIEF FROM RAIDING HOUSE

Case is One of Few on Record Where a Woman Is Sentenced to Jail Without Alternative of Paying Fine

Mrs. N. Powell, of 95 Spring street, was convicted in the city criminal court Friday on the charge of operating a disorderly house, and was sentenced to serve a term of four months in jail by Judge A. E. Calhoun.

This is one of the few cases on record where a woman, charged with operating a disorderly house, has received a straight jail sentence without the alternative of paying a fine.

It is understood that Mrs. Powell through her attorneys, Jackson and Gober, will appeal from the decision of the city court.

The case of Mrs. Powell is made doubly interesting by the fact that she some time ago secured a temporary injunction restraining Chief of Police Beavers from raiding her house or forcing her to move.

Chief Beavers had given Mrs. Powell instructions to move before she secured the injunction, and the police official, when blocked in his effort to move the woman by the order of the superior court, resorted to the city court, where she was indicted on a charge of operating a disorderly house.

Chief Beavers himself appeared as one of the witnesses against her in the criminal court, and was instrumental in securing her conviction.

The temporary order of the superior court has never been heard, and is one of several similar injunctions, which are standing against the police.

Chief Beavers has often stated that attorneys have managed to imp[e]de his work in the suppression of vice through injunctions secured in the courts.