Negro Rights Charges

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30563, 5 October 1964, Page 18

Negro Rights Charges

f.V.Z.P A -Reuter—Copyright? PHILADELPHIA (Mississippi), October 4. The sheriff, his deputy, two patrolmen and another man from Philadelphia were arrested today on Federal indictments sworn by the Grand Jury which investigated the murder of three young civil rights workers last summer. The five men, according to an announcement by the Justice Department in Washington, were accused of violating rights of Negro citizens in Philadelphia. The men were arrested under an indictment handed down by a Federal Grand Jury at Biloxi, Mississippi, which has been investigating the deaths of three civil, rights workers—two New

I York whites and a local Negro I—whose bodies were found near Philadelphia on August Those arrested were the Neshoba County sheriff, Lawrence Rainey, aged 37. the deputy sheriff, Cecil Price, aged 27. Earl Otha Burkes, aged 71, a Philadelphia police patrolman and former deputy sheriff, Richard Andrew Willis, aged 40, also a Philadelphia police patrolman, and Glen Barnett, aged 42. a former Neshoba county sheriff. First reports from Philadelphia and Biloxi had indicated that two men were charged by the Grand Jury in connexion with the murders of the three civil rights workers. But the Justice Department announcement in Wash- | ington made clear that the indictment sworn l>y the Grand I Jury which investigated- the j murders, accused the men of i violations of the civil rights laws. More arrests are pending, the Washington announce-' ment said.

The five men were accused of subjecting a Mississippi Negro, Sam Henry Germany “to deprivation of rights by arresting, incarcerating and detaining” and “striking, beating and whipping him” without justification. The announcement said they also forced Germany to make self-incriminating admissions and confessions with the intent of depriving him of his rights. It said the four accused had also deprived four other Mississippi Negroes of their rights. A second indictment accused Price and Rainey of arresting. incarcerating, striking and beating a local Negro. Kirk Kulberson, with a blunt heavy object. It charged them with subjecting Kulberson to “deprivation or rights secured by the constitution and laws of the United States.”

The charges carry a maximum penalty of one year’s imprisonment and a fine of 1000 dollars. The five men were all released on 1000 dollars bail each.