sonora2sonoma

by Tim Konrad

Chapter Ten

Two of my former club-mates in the Gentlemen featured prominently in an interesting display of small town jurisprudence a few years after our car club days. Brothers, they became embroiled in a dispute at a local celebration with the father-in-law of the older fellow and some of his friends. This father-in-law happened to be the owner of a local glass company and, if memory serves, a member of the sheriff’s possee. When the disagreement  became physical, the police were summoned & the brothers were arrested. At the jail, when the brothers were in the elevator going between receiving in the basement and the higher detention floor, something happened.

The brothers would later claim they were assaulted by the police lieutenant who had been escorting them and the lieutenant said the brothers started it; the brothers had marks indicative of physical trauma. The brothers filed charges against the policeman and a trial ensued.

I knew the policeman and had always thought him to be an okay person, which was complimentary, since my overall impression of policemen at that point was less favorable. I also knew from firsthand experience that one of my former associates, the older of the two brothers, could throw a punch with little provocation.

Elsie Robinson was a famous newspaper columnist from a bygone era who retired to Sonora in the 1930s. Descended from a prominent local family, her roots went deep in the community. One of her comrades from her youth was Melvin Belli, the famed lawyer. Belli, who grew up near Columbia, practiced law out of San Francisco. An unnamed local benefactor (probably Robinson) hired Melvin Belli to defend the police lieutenant in his upcoming trial. The officer was acquitted of his charges and his career was saved.

I chanced upon Belli while strolling one evening in Columbia. He was sitting on a bench across from the museum with his fabled greyhound by his side. The animal had achieved temporary celebrity status a few years earlier and was the subject of numerous news articles. The reports had failed to mention the dog was a miniature greyhound and not  the bigger variety I had expected. Mr. Belli told me that the bathtub he was bathed in as a wee child was in the museum across the street. Some day, he said, he wanted to see if he could purchase it from them.