Have you ever wondered what life was like in Jacksonville half a century ago? It was a different era of history, culture and politics but there are often parallels between the kind of stories that made headlines then and today. As interesting as the differences may be, so are the similarities. These are some of the top stories from this week in 1962. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• Suspended Justice of the Peace George Harris took the witness stand in Criminal Court to deny prosecution testimony that he accepted money to dismiss drunk-driving charges against six people.
Harris’ testimony came in the second day of his trial on charges that he accepted a $150 bribe in January 1961 to throw out a drunk-driving case against Malcolm Schuman, a truck driver at Cecil Field Naval Air Station.
While Harris was being tried solely in the Schuman case, Criminal Court Judge William T. Harvey allowed County Solicitor Edward M. Booth to present evidence about other alleged bribes.
Harris was indicted by the Duval County grand jury on charges of accepting five bribes totaling $575 to dismiss drunk-driving charges against five people.
After hearing final arguments from Booth and defense attorneys Lacy Mahon Jr. and S. Perry Penland in a night session, Harvey recessed the trial at 10:40 p.m. until the next morning when the jury would receive final instruction and retire to deliberate a verdict.
At the close of the final arguments by Booth and Mahon, Mahon moved for a mistrial, charging that some of Booth’s remarks in his closing summation were inaccurate. Harvey denied the motion.
Under questioning by Penland, Harris denied the testimony of his accusers that he took the money to drop the cases brought up by Booth.
When Booth cross-examined Harris, he drew from Harris the statement: “I can’t find any reason why any of these people would come down and tell this jury they paid me some money.”
Harris said so far as he knew, he “never had any personal troubles with any of the prosecution witnesses.”
In his opening remarks in the case, Penland had stated that the defense would show that prosecution of Harris was “nothing but an effort by the governor’s office” to remove Harris so a political debt could be paid by appointment of Robert R. Roberts to replace Harris.
Gov. Farris Bryant suspended Harris after he was indicted on the bribery charges. Roberts was active in Bryant’s gubernatorial campaign.
Under examination by Booth, Harris said he had no knowledge that Bryant was behind any effort to remove him from office.
Harris told Booth he didn’t know Bryant personally and never had any difficulty with Bryant or anyone in the governor’s office, so far as he knew.
In an effort to clear the jury’s mind of any confusion about Harris’ authority as a justice of the peace, Booth recalled Harris to the stand and asked if any justice of the peace in Duval County had the power to levy a fine in a drunk-driving case.
The answer was “no.” Harris said the JP’s function in a drunk-driving case was to consider whether the evidence was sufficient to remand the defendant to Criminal Court.
The jury deliberated for more than two hours before finding Harris guilty of the bribery charge.
Harvey gave the defense 15 days to file a motion for a new trial and put off sentencing until April 17, when arguments on the motion would be heard.
• The Jacksonville Expressway Authority won the right to condemn easements through the air without having to purchase the property below.
The ruling by the Florida Supreme Court was expected to save the authority quite a bit of money in constructing elevated sections of the highway system.
In an opinion written by Justice Campbell Thornall, the court said it wasn’t passing upon the measure of damages to be paid to a property owner for such an easement.
“It is sufficient to observe at this point that in authorizing the acquisition of such an easement the legislature certainly has done so with the intention the property owner must be paid full compensation for any property, including easements, which is taken for the public use,” the court said.
The Expressway Authority announced in September 1961 it would condemn perpetual easements in the airspace above any surface of any public or private property lying within the area of any proposed or future expressway system.
Attorney General Richard Ervin questioned whether such easements would be a lawful exercise of the authority’s condemnation powers. He contended the condemnation laws required the authority to acquire title to the property below.
• Officials decided to give some help to the many citizens who couldn’t find their way around the first floor of the County Courthouse on East Bay Street.
All the elected officials with offices on the ground floor petitioned the Board of County Commissioners to help them resolve the problem. The commissioners agreed and referred the issue to the courthouse custodian for joint study with the ground-floor officials.
Chief spokesman for the group, County Judge McKenney J. Davis, said many complaints had been received about difficulty locating the offices.
He said “there’s a good man at the information desk” in the Bay Street lobby, but the various directories in the building were small and poorly lighted and the numerals on the walls outside of offices were too small.
Among possible solutions, Davis suggested a lighted sign be extended from the door of each office with numerals and letters in print of sufficient size to be seen at least half the distance of the long corridor.
The possibility of removing double doors at the west end of the ground-floor corridor also was brought up by Davis.
No mention was made about remedying a similar situation on the second floor, where it was noted, it was “a common sight to find persons wandering about either or both of the two corridors” trying to find the office or courtroom where they had business.