#PrescottAZHistory: Brave 14 Year-Old Testifies to Her Assault

It was February 11, 1922 when Mr. and Mrs. John A Rounds left with a neighbor, “Grady” CB Bartley to find some firewood. While the couple was searching for wood, Bartley had something far more sinister on his mind.

The three had left Mrs. Round’s sister, 14 year-old Mary Haynes, alone back at the house. After scouting for a bit, Bartley gave an excuse to head back to the house himself.

He “followed [Mary] into the kitchen and called the little girl into the bedroom,” the Prescott Evening Courier related. Afterwards, Bartley threatened the girl in order to keep her quiet.

When Bartley’s wife heard that her husband went into the house where Mary was alone, her immediate response was to think the worst. After her husband had left the scene, Mrs. Bartley “had come to the house, hunting behind curtains and under the beds for her husband, of whom she was suspicious,” the paper said.

Frightened by Bartley’s threats, Mary told no one about “her trouble” until the following Monday, when she confessed the story to her sister after being prodded by her. Rounds “had noticed her sister’s queer manner during Saturday and Sunday,” the paper explained.

Meanwhile, “Mrs. Bartley’s suspicions had been aroused by [her husband's] guilty manner,” and she spoke to Mrs. Rounds about it. “Only after she had been told by Mrs. Bartley of her suspicions did she question her sister,” Mary.

“In company with her husband,” the paper reported, “Mrs. Rounds…then went to the Bartley house, and when she confronted [Mr. Bartley] with the question: ‘What do you mean by what you did to Mary?’ He only hung his head and gave no answer.”

The trial began about a month after the alleged incident. After a jury was selected, it was Mary herself who was the first witness. The paper was immensely impressed with the14 year-old’s bravery and demeanor on the stand. “Her testimony was given in a clear voice and with little or no evidence of embarrassment [and] in a straightforward manner.” She testified that “on February 11, her sister, brother-in-law and a friend, had started from their home in Seligman, to go for some wood. Bartley accompanying them for a short distance. The defendant then returned to the house, followed her into the kitchen and called the little girl into the bedroom, where, according to her testimony, she was forced to yield to his advances.”

Other witnesses for the prosecution testified including “the examining physician, Dr. FH Cartwell, [who] testified that the girl had been violated, and on a recent date,” the paper reported. “The defense witnesses denied in substance the testimony of the prosecuting witnesses.”

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Rape convictions were difficult to obtain a hundred years ago. Judge John Sweeney instructed the jury “that proof of intercourse between any man and a girl under 18 was grounds for a finding of guilty,” but “that Bartley’s denial was to be accepted on the face of it as equal to the girl’s accusation,” the paper explained.

“After the jury had been out for approximately an hour, they re-entered the courtroom” to hear testimony given by a defense witness. It would take another 23 hours of deliberation before they came back to the court reporting they were hung. The final tally was eight for acquittal and four for conviction.

Before a week passed, a new jury was selected excluding a “woman juror drawn in the venire [who was] barred from serving,” the paper told. Once again Mary would give her account steadfastly, stoically and stoutly. Indeed, the evidence was largely a repeat of the first trial.

However, this time, in his closing argument to the jury, Prosecutor Sullivan pulled no punches. “‘The safety of America and the sanctity of American institutions is involved in this case,’ Mr. Sullivan said. ‘Whether you jurors will discharge your duty in this case justly is as great a test of your patriotism as the trials of war,’” the paper related. “‘The honor of the nation is a vital thing, and this accusation shows an unclean condition of affairs which must not be harbored, as it eats at the sacredness of American homes, lives and honor.’"

The wreck of the lives of all concerned in the trial was dealt upon by Prosecutor Sullivan, who told the jury that they "must regard the evidence cold-bloodedly; that a wrong had been done the girl, and that it was up to the jury to decide if Bartley had done it. ‘The honor of a man, no matter how low he may sink in any other way, should be inviolate,’ Mr. Sullivan asserted. ‘No matter if he is homeless, out of work, dirty, hungry and filthy from disease, he still has his honor—this man,’” pointing at the defendant, “‘has shown no honor. When called to the witness stand, he lied!’”

The address lasted 15 minutes. Sullivan “declared ‘This man has committed the most dastardly of crimes, the lowest thing conceivable, and to cap it all, after ruining this young girl, this baby, he called in his wife and his child at home and is trying to hide behind them, in appealing for mercy [from] the jury.’”

Defense attorney Norton stressed “the unutterable seriousness of the verdict [the jury] must bring in; of the fact that conviction meant five years to life in prison for Bartley." When he began speaking about the Bartley’s young child having to grow up without a father, “Bartley and his wife both were convulsively sobbing, he with his arm around her, and she leaning her head on his shoulder.

“Bartley sat beside his wife throughout the closing of the case by [his] attorneys,” the paper described, “and during the presentation of the defense by CC Norton, [he] wept, his sobs being audible over much of the courtroom. His face was haggard and his eyes bloodshot from sleepless nights. Mrs. Bartley who testified for him during the trial, kept her handkerchief at her eye throughout the evening, quietly crying, occasionally her shoulders heaving as she sobbed heart-brokenly. Her jealousy of him [had] been one of the points of the prosecution and defense.

“Mary Haynes sat with her family on the opposite side of the courtroom, quiet, wide-eyed and apparently unmoved by the arguments, smiling wistfully when Prosecutor John L Sullivan pointed to her and told of the alleged wrong done “to this girl, who was but a mere baby.”

It took 19 hours of deliberation, but this time Bartley was found guilty.

On his sentencing date, Bartley’s attorney requested a retrial which was quickly overruled. Judge John J Sweeney then sentenced Bartley to 5-15 years.

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