Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 October 1903 — RUTHERFORD ACQUITTED. [ARTICLE]

RUTHERFORD ACQUITTED.

Firman Rutherford was arrested last Friday for perjury in swearing to the age of one Bessie Swartzell, who recently married James Fleming, on complaint of the girl’s father, Albert Swartzell. It seems Rutherford assisted the young man in securing the marriage license, and signed an affidavit as to the girl’s age, but at the trial it developed that he did not swear to same, and on the court’s instructions the jury returned a verdict of acquittal. The girl was only 15 last June, according to her farther’s complaint, but is large for her age.