Case Summary
On November 28, 1919, a complaint was filed accusing Gussie Burns of 808 N 16th St. of vagrancy by J.B. Murray, the city prosecutor. Gussie was tried before James M. Fitzgerald, a Douglas County police magistrate on the next day, found guilty, and sentenced to 30 days in the county jail. However, she had also been inspected by Omaha's health commissioner and diagnosed with a venereal disease, and was thus confined to the Women's Detention Home at 1915 Dodge St. This was not the first time that this had happened to Gussie—in fact, she was discharged from the detention home as having been cured of a venereal disease shortly before her arrest on November 29. She points out that it was unlikely that she would have caught another disease in such a short period of time. According to Gussie, Alta Berger, the superintendent, and other authorities at the detention home refused to release her until she had "an operation for the removal of certain tubes"—perhaps sterilization. Gussie refused to undergo the surgery unless she could pick the surgeon performing it, which the Detention Home did not allow. Thus, on March 2, 1919, long after her 30-day sentence had elapsed and she had responded well to the treatment for venereal disease, she filed a writ of habeas corpus with the assistance of her attorney William E. Lovely of the firm Lovely and Lovely. It was allowed to issue by judge Lee S. Estelle. The writ was initially addressed to Berger, chief of police Marshall Eberstein and health commissioner Dr. J.F. Edwards, although it was only served to Berger. There was a hearing before judge Charles A. Goss on March 4, 1920, and the writ and return was filed on March 9, 1920. Surviving records do not indicate the outcome of the case, but an Omaha Bee article from January 10, 1919 describes Gussie Burns being held down by doctors at the Detention Home until she "quieted down." According to that same paper, she was again arrested on May 3, 1919 for the same charge of vagrancy after being found in a "Dope House" with cocaine on the premises.
Case Information
Petition type(s)
Petition subtype(s)
Sites of significance
Outcome
Writ allowed
Fate of bound party
Unknown
Case Citation
Douglas County District Court, Omaha, NE, RG230: Douglas County Records, Subgroup 10: District Court, 1855-1972, Series: Criminal Appearance Docket Books, Vol. 22: ca. 1919 - 1920, p. 221; Douglas County District Court, Omaha, NE, RG230: Douglas County Records, Subgroup 10: District Court, 1855-1972, Series 7: Criminal Case Files, 1897-1920, Reel 90: Doc. 22-211 to 22-358, Mar. 22, 1920 - Apr. 16, 1920, No. 22-221
Source material(s)
Case File |
Docket
Length of case file
Between 11 and 20 pages
Repository(s)
State
Tag(s)
