Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1907 — BROHARD GETS OFF EASY. [ARTICLE]

BROHARD GETS OFF EASY.

Alva Brouhard, the youpg Fair Oaks man who has been lying in jail here for the past three months on the charge of rape preferred by the parents of a young girl named Parish, living north of Mt. Ayr, was taken to Kentland Wednesday for trial. His attorney, E. P. Honan of this city, had done a little detective work for his client and made a sworn statement to the court of what he was prepared to prove, andon this statement the charge of rape was nolled and the defendant plead guilty to a plain case of assault and battery and was fined $lO and costs, about $18.50 all told. Mr. Honan found that the family had come from Greenfield, Hancock county, about a year ago, and he made a few trips down there to learn the reputation of the girl, etc. He found the attending physician who ,was present when the girl was born, and that she was born in 1891, therefore instead of being some two months under 13 years of age at the time the crime was committed, as alleged, she was really over 15 years of age. He also found that her reputation was bad there and that she had invited her own destruction. He was prepared to prove this by witnesses from there and*in the vicinity of her home in Newton county; also that the reputation of the parents for truth and veracity was not of the best. Ed is certainly entitled to a great deal of credit for his efforts in saving his client from the penitentiary, to which it seemed he was practically sure of going if this evidence had not been dug up. The other charge against Brohard from the same source, bastardy, has been compromised by the payment of S2OO, but he was brought back here and will have to lie in jail until the February term of court in this county, this case having been brought here and therefore the compromise will have to be approved by this court. The Parish family have moved back to Hancock county.