Racial and Civil Disorders in St. Augustine : Report of the Legistlative Investigation Committee : Appendix 21

              Appendix 21
IN THE COURT OF THE COUNTY JUDGE
IN AND FOR ST. JOHNS COUNTY
ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA
November 20, 1964
Statement
To the end that a record is made of the events that trans­pired
in St. Augustine in the past couple of years the
following statement is made concerning the action b; the
County Judge of St. Johns County as Juvenile Judge and as
Judge of the County Judge's Court.
This statement is to be confined as nearly as possible to the
events having to do with the cases handled in the Court.
Juvenile Cases
One of the first events to occur that should have put the
Court on Notice of an attack, was a planned and calculated
effort to discredit the office and had to do with a group of
children who had been turned over to the Juvenile Counselor.
They were taken into custody, in company with some adults,
on a charge of violating criminal laws of the State of Flor­ida.
The matter was investigated by the Juvenile Counselor
a petition was filed in the Juvenile Court, Notice was give~
the parents and other interested persons, and in due course, a
hearing was held. A number of witnesses were examined·
there was no doubt but that the children came within th~
statutory definition of delinquent children and were so ad­judged
by the Court. In as much as this was the first time
that any of these children had been before the Juvenile Court
and they had good school records, there was no thought but
that the children be placed on probation and the first parent
examined as to their willingness to accept the responsibility
of probation agreed so to do. The next parent flatly refused
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RACIAL AND CIVIL DISORDERS IN ST. AUGUSTINE
to accept her child on probation and attempted an argument
with the Juvenile Court in the presence of the children on the
merits of the case; thereafter, the other parents, includ~ng
the one who had first agreed to accept her child on probation
refused so to accept the children and informed the Court that
we could keep them. Under these circumstances, there being
no other facility to take custody, we committed the children
to the State Training Schools. There was no doubt but that
these people had planned in advance to take ~uch a ~nited
stand in the event the children were found delmquent m or­der
that an attack might be made upon the procedures of the
Juvenile Court. On the night following the hearing, an at­torney
called at the home of the County Judge to discuss the
cases and the County Judge agreed to reconsider the commit­ment
after he was assured by the attorney that the parents
would accept the children on probation, but the following
day when the parents called upon the County Judge four out
of six parents refused to accept the children on probation
and of the two that did accept, another attorney then pres­ent,
made an obvious attempt to consult with such parents to
dissuade them, but the parents refused to talk to the attor­ney.
The children were held for several weeks awaiting ac­ceptance
by the Training School and when they were ac­cepted,
the parents descended upon the C~unty Judge,
accompanied by a number of other people, statmg that they
were going to "sit in this office until their ch~ldren were
released". Within a short while, a number of picketers ap­heared
outside of the office and the halls of the Court House
were filled with a number of colored people singing and
otherwise creating a disturbance. The case was appealed to
the District Court of Appeals. The first notice that the Juve­nile
Court had of a hearing on this Appeal was when an
Order was issued out of the District Court of Appeals in
which it appeared that the Attorney Generals office had en­tered
into a Stipulation with the attorney by the appellants
based upon a number of false statements. In its opinion, t~e
District Court of Appeals while recognizing that the Juvemle
Court after commitment to the State Training Schools lost
jurisdiction over the Juvenile until it was discharged, yet
suggested that the Juvenile Court request the ~oar~ of Com­missioners
of State Institutions to release said children.
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RACIAL AND CIVIL DISORDERS IN ST. AUGUSTINE
Even though it was impossible to comply with the sugges­tion
by the District Court of Appeals, it was obvious to the
Juvenile Judge that the attorneys for the children did not
desire the Juvenile Court to release said children; they
wanted to bypass the Juvenile Court. After the decision of
the District Court of Appeals, the attorneys for the children
went to the Governor and the Board of State Institutions
with a request that the children be released from the school.
At the same time that this attorney had been arguing before
the District Court of Appeals that the parents were now
r~a?y to accept the children on probation, the parents were
givmg an interview to a newspaper reporter which stated
that they would not accept such children on probation that
they considered that the children were in school for a' good
cause. The Board of Commissioners for State Institutions
eventua!ly released the children to their parents and during
succee~mg weeks at least two of these children were again
taken mto custody for law violations.
In spite of the fact that these children have been released
th~t so far as his Appeal was concerned, the Attorney for th~
children was out of Court, the District Court of Appeals has
r.e-opened the Appeal, has allowed the attorney additional
fame to file certain pleadings and has directed the Juvenile
Co~rt to resubmit the case, together with certain pleadings
which said Court is directed to accept from said attorney.
The publicity in this case was handled in a masterful man­ner
by an organized group then seeking the enactment of cer­tain
legislation in the Congress of the United States. By the
use of half truths and outright falsehoods, much sympathy
for the position of the children was generated, and we un­derstand
that large amounts of money were donated to the
organized groups. The Juvenile Court, before these children
were released, had control over the actions of the children
of this community so far as their attendance in school as­sociation
of persons of ill repute and violations of the' law
were concerned. We had no problems with our colored chil­dren
and we found them to be very truthful and cooperative
when called upon by the Court, but after the children were
released, we found the situation to be just the opposite. We
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RACIAL AND CIVIL DISORDERS IN ST. AUGUSTINE
had little or no control over the children who decided to v!o­late
the law and the parents of the teenagers could exercise
little control over them, and very few colored children had
any respect for the Juvenile Court.
We are satisfied that the continued effort for the Appeal
in the case of the four juveniles, that received so much pub­licity,
is made with the hope of the attorney and the group
that they can by "hook or crook" have this matter remanded
to the Juvenile Court and by Motion there will have the cases
transferred to the proper criminal court, and will file a Mo­tion
in the Federal Court to remove the case to the Feder~!
District Court. The operation of this organized group m
St. Augustine and St. Johns County impressed upon ~e
that the Courts of a small county or of any one .county w1t.h
limited funds and personnel to handle only routme cases, 1s
not equipped to combat a well planned a~d wel! fina~ced a~­tack
by a force determined to obstruct, d1scred1t or 1?1mob_1-
lize said Court willing to use any means possible to gam their
end. As long as the State allows attacks to be made on a~y
of its separate courts, one at a time, they could eac? be dis­credited
starting with the lower courts and progressmg from
Court to Court to and through the Supreme Court.
In reporting on the Juvenile Cases I should ~ention :hat
at the outset, after juveniles were being used m law viola­tions
with great frequency the attorneys for the g~oup wo~ld
demand of the Juvenile Court that they be furmshed with
the names of all juveniles taken in custody. The attorneys
claimed to represent the children when they did not even
know their names and were indignant when they were not
furnished the information but instead were required to sub­mit
written authorization to represent children.
When the attorneys were successful in staying proceedings
in the State Courts by filing motions to transfer to Fe?eral
Courts the children and/ or parents began to appear with a
writte~ designation of attorney which included a request
that the case be transferred to the Criminal Court .. At .the
hearing many of the parents repudiate~ t~e authorization,
saying they did not know what they were s1gnmg.
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RACIAL AND CIVIL DISORDERS IN ST. AUGUSTINE
COUNTY JUDGE'S COURT
The first persons arrested and tried in the County Judge's
Court were charged with "Trespass after Warning", "Ob­structing
an Officer in the Performance of a Lawful Duty",
etc., and the operation of the attorney for the defendants
was revealing.
In one case the defendant did not appear for trial. His
attorney informed the Judge that he did not know the where­abouts
of the defendant who had been told to be present. The
attorney made no objection when the Appearance Bond was
Ordered Estreated. Within 30 days the Bondsman surren­dered
the defendant to the Sheriff and within the hour
posted another Bond for the appearance of said defendant
at the next term of Court. The Bondsman then came to the
Court and demanded that the Estreature of the Bond be set
aside because he had surrendered the defendant. If such pro­cedures
were allowed a defendant would never be tried as
long as he could get a bondsman and a bondsman would
never have to pay a bond as long as he could surrender the
defendant within 30 days just long enough to write another
bond.
The pattern in the cases tried was that the defendants
n:iade little or no defense but upon conviction they filed "No­bce
of Appeal" and posted a Supersedeas Bond. In many in­stances
the appeals were not perfected according to the Rules
of Practice and when the Appeals were dismissed on Mo­tion,
the defendant appealed the dismissal on technical
grounds. In one case even though the Appeal had been dis­missed,
the Appeals Court reopened the case and ordered a
new trial. The defendant then filed a Motion with the Federal
District Court for removal and thus the lower Court has not
been able to carry out the directions of the State Appeals
Court. The Court cannot even take any action on the Super­sedeas
Bonds. It is interesting to note that the Federal Court
will enjoin any effort to collect on any bonds posted and no
such bonds have been paid, yet when the State Court shows
some reluctance to accept surety bonds when the surety is in
default or raises the amount of the bond, the Federal
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RACIAL AND CIVIL DISORDERS IN ST. AUGUSTINE
Judge has defeated such action by very critical orders, the
legality of which is doubtful.
It is a matter of common knowledge that the defendants in
the criminal cases are really not the real party in interest.
The real party in interest is the NAACP or the SCLC.
These are the organizations that planned the operation, pro­cured
the persons to perform the acts for which the arrests
were made, paid the premium on the bail bonds and secured
the writing of the bonds. They retain counsel and through
the paid trained organizers and field personnel keep the
Movement going. After a number of arrests had been made
in St. Johns County, upon complaint of property owners
and other persons involved, the attorney for the defendants
apparently secured permission from the Federal Court to
file a Motion transferring a number of cases to the Fed­eral
Court in wholesale lots. The cases were not identified by
date, charge or other specific information, only by the na1:1e
of the defendant, and in many instances the name was m­correct.
When the first case was filed, and incidentally, we
are informed that costs of filing was waived, before any
hearing could be had on the Motion, additional cases were
transferred simply by furnishing the Clerk of the Federal
Court with the names of defendants who had been taken
into custody in the mean time. In all, four or five hun­dred
cases have thus been held in suspense by the County
Judge's Court. The Federal Judge initially remanded the
first group., but his remand was stayed by a Federal Judge of
the Appeals Court; thereafter, when the Motions were filed
the Federal Judge has simply held up his ruling and al­though
these cases are supposed to receive preference in the
Federal Court, no ruling has been forth-coming for several
months. The Federal Judge has been active in issuing injunc­tions
in regard to the enforcement of municipal ordinances,
in regard to acceptance of and amounts of bail bonds, and in
other matters. In the hearings had before the Federal Judge,
the attorneys for the organized groups were allowed great
liberties, but the attorneys for the Court and County officials
were barely heard. A number of suits have been filed
against the County Judge, the County prosecuting attorney,
Juvenile Counselor and Law Enforcement officers. In these
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RACIAL AND CIVIL DISORDERS IN ST. AUGUSTINE
suits the Court and its personnel have been on trial. The suit
is the first time, so far as I know, that a group of defendants
in a number of criminal cases pending in a State Court
have succeeded in putting the State Court on trial. The at­torneys
for the organized group called their motions up for
arguments early in the week, serving Notice upon the
County officials, and others, of from one hour to barely three
days. The attorneys, of course, have had days to draft their
pleadings, even to the point of having them mimeographed,
but they are usually filed on the week end and the notice
sets the matter down for hearing on the following Monday.
Just recently the attorney for the organized group served no­tice
of taking of deposition of the County Judge, County
Prosecuting Attorney and Sheriff and the Chief of Police
on Monday morning at 10AM without making any effort
to see whether or not the Court had any matters scheduled at
said time on said date, and on one occasion the County Judge
and personnel of his Court were required to be in the Fed­eral
District Court on the first Tuesday in the month. The
groups attorneys knew it to be the term day of said County
Judge's Court for which a jury is summoned at least 10 days
prior to said term. This all points up to the fact that these
attorneys and the organized group have planned extensively
and well to disrupt the local Court and keep it so bogged
down in these cases as to render it ineffective.
The attacks upon the local Court, the Judge and officials
thereof, were calculated to discredit them and at every hear­ing
the Courtroom in the Post Office Building in Jacksonville
was packed by negroes, many of them were defendants in
cases pending before the County Judge's Court. Others were
from out of the county, but were brought to Jacksonville in
rental cars, some of which were fr9m as far away as Dade
County.
We believe that the organized group has been using St.
Johns County, Marion County and Leon County in order to
work out and try a method and procedure of attack upon the
State Courts. They have been successful in establishing prec­edents
that will make it very difficult for the State to defend
other courts in other counties. The cases that have been
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RACIAL AND CIVIL DISORDERS IN ST. AUGUSTINE
t f d by Motion under the rule of the Federal Court,
rans erre A lt" "P king on
include such offences as "Aggravated ssau ' "ar
the Highway", "Possession of Concealed Weapon~ ' e.tc. Just
recently a case has been transferred out of the Ci.rcmt Court
on such a Motion on a charge of "Murder". This case had
been pending before the Circuit Court for about one year,
and on the day scheduled for a hearing, one of the attorne!s
representing the organized group called the Clerk of t~ ~ir­cuit
Court on the telephone and notified him that a o ion
had just been filed in the Federal Court for transfer of the
case The Circuit Judge called the Clerk of the Federal Court
and ·when told by the Clerk that such a motion had been file~,
he continued the case. During the recent months of the agi­tation
over the Civil Rights Issue, both before and after the
enactment of the law a number of attorneys from out of
State have been in St. Augustine advising the negroes .en­gaged
by the group. They have appeared in Court from time
to time with these people but have insisted that they are not
practicing law. They admit that they are not members of
the Bar of the State of Florida. This matter .was called to
the attention of the Bar Association but nothmg was done.
People in Florida from the Governor down who have .not
been directly affected by the activities of these orgamzed
groups have apparently wanted to "stay out of the mes~",
and this has been exactly what this group, or any subversive
group, would desire. In this manner they can att.ack what
ever portion of the populace they m~y select or thmk them­selves
capable of conquering and takmg. one group after an­other,
gain such control that they may desire.
~. c..
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