Five Declare Buys Induced by Operatives
Youngsters say Pair Sheriff Employed gave Liquor.
Boys tell of drinking with detectives at dance.
Girl Mentioned.
November 19, 1929
Activities of private detectives in an attempt to enforce prohibition in Lassen County took a new turn today when charges were made that the detectives had used children to secure evidence and had given children liquor to drink.
At a meeting of the grand jury of Lassen County in Susanville today five affidavits were filed to support the charges.
The affidavits allege that a bootlegger of Bieber, in northwestern Lassen County, had sold liquor to a boy – that the liquor was for the private use of two operatives of the Charles Watkins detective agency in Oakland, California, and that these two operatives had given four boys and a girl liquor.
Filing of the affidavits came as an aftermath of a prohibition drive against the Bieber hotel of Bieber, which resulted in the place being abated last Tuesday by Judge H. D. Burroughs of the superior court in Susanville.
The detectives were used to secure evidence against the establishment.
The affidavits were sworn to before J. F. Salcido, a notary public of Bieber, by Arthur Pircin, aged 19 years; Barnes Kene, aged 16 years; Chester GeGerhart, aged 14 years; Reita Know, aged 16 years, and Loyd Know, aged 19 years.
According to the five affidavits, the children were given the liquor at a dance held in Bieber August 31.
One of the boys, Barnes Keene, appeared in the juvenile court Wednesday before Judge Burroughs. He testified that W. Basco, one of the detectives, gave him $2.50 to buy a bottle of whisky. The boy said that he could not purchase the liquor himself, but that he sent Arthur Pircin, aged 19, to get the bottle. He said that they then returned to the dance and drank the liquor.
Basco and his partner, L. M. McGee, were hired by Sheriff J. D. Leavitt of Lassen County with the sanction of District Attorney J. A. Nutting. The two detectives were sent to Bieber to get evidence against the hotel, against which an abatement suit was then pending.
They finally purchased a gallon of liquor, they said, from F. E. Keene, the proprietor, who, they added, told them where the gallon jug was hidden away from the hotel.
The two detectives admitted on the stand that they were at Bieber several days before they managed to buy the liquor, and that they even helped Keene scrub the hotel dining room to live up to their reputation of being “good fellows”.
The gallon of liquor was purchased Saturday morning, August 31, and the pint of liquor, which it is charged they secured for their own consumption, was bought through the boy that night, it was said.
When the gallon jug was introduced as evidence it contained little more than a pint. The two detectives admitted in the stand at the trial of Keene that they had consumed the liquor with a party of friends.
During the trial, the four youths, ranging in age from 14 years to 19 years, made the statement that they had drank the liquor with Basco at the Bieber dance.
Harry Harrison, the state’s main witness in the case, admitted under cross-examination by Hardin Barry, attorney for Keene, that he and Keene had gone to Bieber last April to open the hotel and to sell liquor. Keene, he testified, did not live up to the agreement entered into, and failed to give him any of the money. Keene, he said, bought him out.
At the trial Keene was found not guilty of sale by a jury. He and his wife were previously fined $250 each for possession. They appeared before Justice of the Peace W. B. Philliber of Bieber.
