Tuesday July 3 4:45 PM ET
By Tracey DePasquale
YORK, Pa. (Reuters) - A judge on Tuesday ordered the mayor of York, Pennsylvania, and five other white men to stand trial for the murder of a black woman shot by a white mob as race riots swept the small industrial city in 1969.
In a case similar to recently reopened civil rights-era murder cases in the American South, York County Senior Judge Emanuel Cassimatis ordered Mayor Charlie Robertson, a former York policeman, and his co-defendants to stand trial for the death of Lillie Belle Allen, 27.
The mother of two was shot to death after her family car strayed into a neighborhood of heavily armed whites on the night of July 21, 1969, after four days of rioting.
``For 32 years, we waited for this moment,'' said Allen's sister Hattie Dickson, the driver of the car. ``I feel that truth and justice will prevail in all of this.''
Formal arraignment for Robertson, Robert Messersmith, Arthur Messersmith, Chauncey Gladfelter, Thomas Smith and William Ritter will take place on July 23. They are free on bail.
Prosecutors said they planned to seek life sentences against all six defendants at a trial that could be a year away.
MAYOR DENIES CHARGES
Robertson, 67, a popular two-term Democrat, has denied the charges and refused to step down despite repeated calls for his resignation.
``I am innocent of these charges,'' the mayor told a news conference on the steps of York City Hall after the ruling. ``I have faith in the legal system and that I will ultimately be found innocent.
``Why the prosecutor's office has singled me out remains a mystery to me,'' he said.
But York County prosecutor Timothy Barker said the evidence against the defendants was clear and convincing.
``Lillie Belle Allen is the victim of a crime. Our prosecution is about bringing to justice her murderers,'' said Barker. ``We will meet our burdens of showing guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.''
Tuesday's ruling followed a three-day court hearing at which one defendant testified that Robertson, who was a police officer in 1969, gave him ammunition and told him to kill as many blacks as possible. Some of the ammunition was later fired at Allen, eyewitnesses said in court affidavits.
Co-defendant Robert Messersmith, a 52-year-old disabled man from suburban Philadelphia who was described by witnesses as a former leader of a white teen-age gang in York, is accused of being the actual triggerman.
DEFENSE CITES 'TENUOUS' CASE
Robertson attorney William Costopoulos said the prosecution's case was extremely tenuous, but added he was not surprised by the ruling. ``I have rarely seen a high-profile case dismissed at a preliminary hearing stage,'' he said.
Allen was visiting from Aiken, South Carolina, when she was struck and killed by a rifled shotgun slug that tore through her chest. A rifled shotgun slug is scored with ridges to ensure it will fragment on impact.
Eyewitnesses have testified Allen was waving her hands and shouting, ``Don't shoot!'' to a group of gun-toting white youths just before they opened fire.
Her parents, sister and brother-in-law, who had all been in the car with her, were ordered by authorities to drive away on the rims of their bullet-riddled Cadillac. Allen was taken to a nearby hospital where she died.
The rioting that erupted in York during the summer of 1969 brought National Guard tanks into the streets, set city blocks ablaze, and ended with hundreds of arrests, scores of injuries and two deaths: Allen's and that of white rookie police officer Henry Schaad, shot by a sniper. York is 80 miles (130 km) west of Philadelphia.
The violence occurred during an era of rioting in major U.S. cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Detroit. The unrest peaked in the months after the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968.
A total of nine white men were indicted for Allen's murder. But three of the defendants -- Rick Knouse, 48, Gregory Neff, 53, and Clarence Lutzinger, 49 -- agreed to plead guilty to lesser conspiracy charges in exchange for their testimony. They could be sentenced to 23-1/2 months in prison.
A grand jury investigation into the death of police officer Schaad has recently been opened.
� 1997
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