Case Summary

On August 27, 1919, Mamie Allen petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus, and the next day it was filed. Her attorney John M. Berger was also helping two other women file petitions to be released from the Detention Home, Agnes Marshall and Ruth Matthews. In her petition, Allen claimed she was unlawfully imprisoned in the Detention Home. She was arrested on August 23 and charged with vagrancy contrary to the statute of the state of Nebraska. On August 25, the court sentenced her to thirty days in county jail. Although she offered to pay the bonds for the appeal, Judge Charles E. Foster refused to accept. Because of the conviction for vagrancy, the Health Department held her on mittimus for an examination for any venereal diseases under the custody of Elizabeth Hardy, the keeper of the Detention Home. On August 29, 1919, the judge accepted the petition and filed a writ of habeas corpus. The same day, Elizabeth Hardy responded to the writ, claiming that she was authorized to hold Allen because the state of Nebraska Ordinance No. 10222 mandated her to do so. An Omaha Daily Bee Article states that Judge William A. Redick ruled the detention illegal and ordered that the women be released.

Case Information

Petition type(s)

• Carceral

Petition subtype(s)

• Vagrancy
• Prostitution

Sites of significance

• Omaha Detention Hospital (Omaha, Nebraska)
• Douglas County Jail (Omaha, Nebraska)

Outcome

Writ allowed

Fate of bound party

Released from custody

Case Citation

Douglas County District Court, Omaha, NE, RG230: Douglas County Records, Subgroup 10: District Court, 1855-1972, Series: Criminal Appearance Docket Books, Vol. 21: ca. 1919, p. 528; Douglas County District Court, Omaha, NE, RG230: Douglas County Records, Subgroup 10: District Court, 1855-1972, Series 7: Criminal Case Files, 1897-1920, Reel 86: Doc. 21-472 to 21-604, Aug. 13, 1919 - Sep. 18, 1919, No. 21-528

Source material(s)

Docket | Case File

Length of case file

Between 11 and 20 pages

Related petitions

• In the matter of application of Agnes Marshall for writ of Habeas Corpus
• In the matter of the application of Agnes Marshall for a writ of Habeas Corpus
• In the matter of the application for Ruth Mathews for a Writ of Habeas Corpus

Repository(s)

• Douglas County District Court (Omaha, Nebraska)

State

• Nebraska

Point(s) of law cited

The state of Nebraska Ordinance No. 10222

Tag(s)

• Prostitution vagrancy
• Prostitution

People

• Allen, Mamie (petitioner)
• Allen, Mamie (bound party)
• Berger, John M. (petitioner attorney)
• Hardy, Elizabeth (Mrs. J.C. Hardy) (respondent)
• Hardy, Elizabeth (Mrs. J.C. Hardy) (holding party)
• Hardy, Elizabeth (Mrs. J.C. Hardy) (responding party)
• Redick, William A. (judge)
• Foster, Charles E. (police magistrate)
• Foster, Charles E. (police judge)

• Additional parties

  Shotwell, A. V. (County Attorney)

  Smith, Robert (Clerk)

  Steere, Asel Jr. (Deputy)

  Nelson, Alice F. (Notary Public)

  Smith, ED. P. (Mayor and President of city council)

  Hunter, W. J. (City Clerk)