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Sam Lefkowtiz's store windows broken
Sam Lefkowitz was was identified as the store owner in the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book, although Officer Doran was the complainant in the affidavit.
When Brown appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 20, he was charged with both malicious mischief, for allegedly breaking the window, and inciting a riot, for his alleged call for the group to break other windows. Magistrate Renaud held Brown for the grand jury on the riot charge, and sent him to the Court of Special Sessions to be tried on the charge of malicious mischief. When Brown was brought before the grand jury, they sent him to the Court of Special Sessions to be tried for the misdemeanor form of the offense of riot. The outcome of Brown's two trials in the Court of Special Sessions are unknown.
Lefkowitz was one of the twenty white business owners identified as filing claims for damages against the city in stories in the New York Sun, New York World-Telegram, New York American and New York Amsterdam News. He claimed losses of $1610.64, one of just over a third of the owners who claimed more than $1000. The city lost court cases resulting from these claims, so Lefkowitz likely received some damages, but perhaps not enough to remain in business. The MCCH business survey did not include a business at 2147 7th Avenue in the second half of 1935. The Tax Department photograph was taken from too far away to identify the businesses at the address in 1939-1941.
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This page references:
- Harlem Magistrates Court docket book
- District Attorney's Closed Case Files, 204135 (1935) (New York City Municipal Archives).
- "Claim $38,000 Riot Damages," New York Sun, April 23, 1935 [clipping]
- "Harlem Riot Claims," New York American, April 24, 1935 [clipping].
- "$38,000 Sought in Harlem Riot," New York World-Telegram, April 23, 1935 [clipping]
- "Owners Want Riot Damages," New York Amsterdam News, June 1, 1935, 18.