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Patrolman John McInerney in the grand jury (April 10)
Arthur Garfield Hays learned of the grand jury's decision from those newspaper stories. On April 11 he wrote to District Attorney Dodge asking if the men who had testified at the MCCH hearing were called before the grand jury and for the identity of the other witnesses. Hays granted that he had heard "only one side of this case," and presented himself as anxious to have other witnesses appear in a MCCH hearing to publicly present all the evidence "so that if there was any justification for the shooting, the public may know it." His phrasing indicated that he been persuaded by the eye-witnesses' testimony that the shooting was not justified. Dodge replied the next day that "the District Attorney's office called every witness who knew anything with reference to this case against McInerney." The list he provided included the three eye-witnesses, Russell Hobbs and his family, Louis Eisenberg, Patrolman Watterson, McInerney's partner, Detective McCormick, the stenographer, Detective O'Brien, and the medical examiner, Dr. Halpern. Patrolman McInerney had also waived his immunity and offered to appear. The grand jury declined to hear from him.
In addition to Eisenberg, three of the grand jury witnesses identified in Dodge's letter had not testified in a MCCH hearing, Patrolmen McInerney and Watterson and Detective O'Brien. Having them give their evidence in public, as Hays' letter indicated was the MCCH's next step, was possible now as the end of the legal proceedings freed them from Dodge's restriction on police testifying. As Hays extended the MCCH investigation, Detective O'Brien closed the police investigation, recording that patrolman McInerney had been exonerated.
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This page references:
- Arthur Garfield Hays to William Dodge, April 11, 1935, "Harlem, Mayor's Commission on Conditions in," Box 26, Folder 1, Arthur Garfield Hays Papers (Princeton University).
- Public Hearings - Outbreak (March-April 1935), 179-80, Subject Files, Box 408, Folder 8 (Roll 194), Records of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-1945 (New York City Municipal Archives).
- Dodge to Arthur Garfield Hays, April 12, 1935, "Harlem, Mayor's Commission on Conditions in," Box 26, Folder 1, Arthur Garfield Hays Papers (Princeton University).
- John O'Brien, Supplementary Complaint Report, Complaint #523, April 11, 1935, "Harlem, Mayor's Commission on Conditions in," Box 25, Folder 19, Arthur Garfield Hays Papers (Princeton University).
- “Overcrowded Harlem Schools Breed Child Delinquency, Riot Probers Hear," Home News, April 11, 1935 [clipping].
- “Link Old Schools to Harlem Unrest,” New York Times, April 11, 1935, 16.
- "Hobbs Case," undated, "Harlem, Mayor's Commission on Conditions in," Box 25, Folder 19, Arthur Garfield Hays Papers (Princeton University).
- "Cop Who Slew Boy Escapes Indictment," New York Post, April 11, 1935.
- "Cop Cleared in Death of Young Riot Victim," Afro-American, April 27, 1935, 12.