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Looting in the courts (50)
The initial charge made in the Magistrates Court against those arrested for looting was typically burglary (38 of 50 cases). A charge of burglary required breaking into a store, entering it, and taking merchandise - all the elements that made up looting. If police did not have evidence of all three elements, the charge had to be to another offense that carried lesser penalties. Seven of those arrested for looting were charged with petit larceny instead of burglary. In those cases police likely had evidence an individual had taken merchandise but not that they had broken into and entered a store to take those goods. What form of larceny that evidence supported depended upon the value of the goods allegedly stolen. Petit larceny indicated that in all seven cases the goods were worth less than $100. Another three of those arrested for looting were charged with disorderly conduct instead of burglary. That charge could indicate that police had evidence an individual broke windows but not that they took merchandise, or that they had part of a crowd near looting. Police charged the remaining two men with robbery.
After the initial arraignment, prosecutors in the Magistrates Court later changed a charge of burglary to a lesser offense in eight cases: unlawful entry for Elva Jacobs; petit larceny for Henry Goodwin; and disorderly conduct for Joseph Payne, Raymond Taylor, Preston White, Elizabeth Tai, Arthur Davis and Herbert Hunter (that change is not recorded in the docket book for Davis and Hunter, but the Magistrate convicted them, which he could only do if they were charged with disorderly conduct). The charge of unlawful entry against Jacob suggests that police presented evidence that she had entered a store or put her hand through the window but not that she had taken merchandise.
Magistrates sent just over half (28 of 50) of those arraigned for looting to the grand jury to be charged with felony burglary. In ten of those cases, the grand jury saw the alleged offense differently, and voted misdemeanor charges that sent those individuals to the Court of Special Sessions not felony charges that would have sent them to the Court of General Sessions.