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Show - ..r Pre zecutes . Ozc of Ilis Sens on a Charje o A:::ult end Battery, cn Itc Parent. t; : i c f the Klch family were 1 In Jude Diehl's court, this : : j. Er.3 the line was full of soiled The case of the city against - :r et II. -Rich, charged with assault 1 battery on his father, E. E. Rich, 1 ccupiel the entire morring session of urt, save a few minutes devoted to : !r.or matters. E. E. Rich, the complaining witness, 1 father ofthe defendant, testified -it the relations between himself and ' 'sort had been very strained, and not what the relations of father r 1 son should be. He swore that the .'endant made repeated threats to do t .Irt bodily harm, every time they met. lie said that his son had on several occasions declared that he would never lot him alone until the parent was in his f rave. His son constantly abused him, and. on the morning of January 7th, rri:ied him many vile liames. He called .'.5 eon a cur, and the son struck him in the face and knocked him down. The witness then called for help. On cross-examination the witness said i he trouble had originated last October over a right of way between their respective re-spective properties. v He denied having ever threatened the life of. his son. Mrs. Hart, a neighbor, testified that she saw the old gentleman on, the ground, but saw no exchange of blows. Arthur Fruen,.who owns a store ad-Jolnlrtr ad-Jolnlrtr that of Mr. Rich, said that after -the fight on January 7th. the aged man , came, to him for protection. He said .also that Ernest Rich, the defendant, had told him that he was sorry the affair af-fair had occurred. v Edgar E. Rich, son of the complainant, complain-ant, and half-brother to the defendant, never heard his father threaten the defendant. de-fendant. On January 7th his father was ' i - " 1 very sick, scarcely able to walk. He said also that the defendant had told him that his father got what he deserved. de-served. Edgar, Rich said he asked the defendant defend-ant why he didn't pick on him Instead of an old man. The defendant then called his half-brother a series of choice names, and threw a scrubbing brush at him. after which he seised a cleaver and went after the witness. The witness drew a gun, he said, and prepared to defend himself. Eddie E. Rich, another half-brother of the defendant, had never - heard Ernest IL Rich threaten his father. His father was quite ill on the day of the trouble. He spoke to the defendant afterward regarding the trouble and his half-brother had said that he would have tramped his father's face in the ground if he had the chance. i Owing to the-Cact that Ernest II. Rich was constantly abusing the father, he and the other members of the family I avoided him, the witness declared. Mrs. E. E: Rich, wife of the com-pQaining com-pQaining witness, said that at one time Phe defendant had drawn a butcher knife on his father and had threatened, to blow the top of his head oil, and had frequently threatened hlmi This completed the State's evidence, and Mrs. J. B. Reld was called for the defense. She said that as E. E. Rich passed his son's butcher shop on the day of the trouble,-K. H,Rlch came out of the shop, and the father hit the son a blow in the face. They then exchanged blows and the aged man was knocked down. The younger son helped him to. arise, :and the father was taken into Fruen's store. "She watched the affair closely as she thought it was going to be a "good fight." About a dozen other witnesses for the defense remain to be examined before the case can go to Judge DlehL |