Flynn hearing draws recess
Girl tells of meeting actor at Hollywood party
Hollywood, California (UP) –
The preliminary hearing at which screen actor Errol Flynn has been charged with statutory assault by two teenage girls was interrupted today to give all participants, except the accusers, who are too young, an opportunity to vote.
The first session yesterday ended with Flynn’s lawyer Jerry Geisler, one of the best-known criminal attorneys in the West, getting into the record his client’s initial reaction to the story told by Miss Betty Hansen, movie-struck girl from Lincoln, Nebraska.
Flynn said, according to his lawyer:
It’s all a horrible lie.
Meet at party
The hearing will be resumed tomorrow morning.
Miss Hansen told of meeting Flynn at a Hollywood party and of being introduced by a friend who said Flynn could help her movie career.
The Press will report certain details of the Flynn trial as it progresses but most of the direct testimony will not be used as it is unfit for publication in the opinion of the editors of this newspaper.
Court to rule on trial
The other girl involved in the case, Peggy LaRue Satterlee, is expected to testify later.
The hearing before a municipal judge is to determine whether Flynn shall be held for Superior Court trial.
Flynn sat with downcast eyes, drawing doodles on a scratch pad, while Miss Hansen testified.
Agnes Toupes, an oriental dancer who performed at the party, testified as a state witness, saying she was whirling so fast during her dance that she could not tell exactly what went on.
Dressed as schoolgirl
If Miss Satterlee appears before the jury that will try Flynn some weeks hence as she appeared yesterday, she will be an impressive witness because yesterday, in addition to two long pigtails, she wore a schoolgirl skirt and low-heeled wedgies, very little makeup, and looked like a child. Two weeks ago, cameramen went to NTG’s Florentine Garden where she dances in the chorus, to take her picture and she posed in a brief, skintight, divided bodice, sequin-spangled costume with high heels, a hat cocked over one eye, and her hair done in buns behind each ear. She looked considerably older then.
She said:
I dress for myself.
…shaking her pigtails, when asked about the change.
Miss Hansen didn’t look the same, either. Before, she had worn brown slacks and a heavy makeup. Yesterday, she wore a demure tan dress, very little makeup, and carried a schoolgirl’s trench coat.
