York Trial Dismissal Ruling Delayed

A judge said Tuesday that he will not rule until at least next month on whether charges against nine white men accused of killing a black woman during a 1969 race riot should be dismissed.

After a two-day hearing, Judge Edward Biester Jr. said he would wait until Dec. 18 to hear closing arguments. Defense attorneys want the charges dismissed, saying too much time has passed since the slaying to guarantee their clients a fair trial.

The men are charged in the shooting death of Lillie Belle Allen, 27, a preacher’s daughter from South Carolina who was visiting relatives in York when she was killed by a white mob.

Eight of the defendants are accused of firing at the car in which Allen was riding. Charlie Robertson, a city police officer at the time of the riots and the city’s current mayor, is charged with handing out bullets and encouraging whites to kill blacks before Allen was shot.

All the defendants have pleaded not guilty.

During two days of testimony, former and current law enforcement officials attempted to explain why it took more than three decades to make arrests in the case.

Prosecutors say they uncovered dozens of new leads that justified a reexamination of the long-unsolved murder. Defense attorneys say it is too late to charge the men now because too many potential witnesses are dead and critical evidence has been lost.

Among those questioned was Rodney George, a detective with the county district attorney’s office who has recently interviewed witnesses about Allen’s shooting.

George said some witnesses who were interviewed by the state police in 1969 gave him new information when he re-interviewed them--and that several people apparently lied to investigators 32 years ago.

In a separate case, two black men were arrested last month and charged with killing a white police officer, Henry Schaad, who was shot during the riots.