Rick L. Knouse, who reportedly told an investigative grand jury that York Mayor Charles Robertson gave him bullets and instructions to shoot black people, agreed yesterday to testify against Robertson and the other five men charged with the July 21, 1969, murder of Allen. Two others also made plea bargains yesterday.
A defense lawyer for Robertson predicted that in addition to Knouse, a former city police officer will take the stand to testify against the mayor today.
"My belief is they're going to call (former York City Police) Officer (Dennis) McMaster and Knouse to testify today. We will deal with them when we cross-examine them on the witness stand," said attorney William Costopoulos.
McMaster, now police chief in East Pennsboro Township, Cumberland County, reportedly told the investigative grand jury he saw Robertson hand out ammunition to youth-gang members before Allen was killed.
McMaster arrived at the courthouse shortly before the hearing was scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.
Costopoulos said that in yesterday's full day of testimony he saw "no surprises" or "smoking gun" that would justify the homicide charge against his client.
"The mayor said dumb things back then that I
Barring any surprises today, Costopoulos said, Robertson has a good chance of convincing York County Common Pleas Court Senior Judge Emmanuel Cassimatis to dismiss his case.
Five people were called to testify yesterday about the sequence of events on North Newberry Street that culminated in Allen's murder, including two former gang members, a county detective a relative of Allen's and a neighborhood resident who witnessed the slaying.
All four who lived through the 1969 riots described the barrage of gunfire that rained on Allen and her vehicle, and recounted their own efforts to survive the confusion and violence.
Gary Holtzapple of Dover was 17 at the time and a member of the Yorklyn Boys gang. Although not on the front lines that night -- he said he was unarmed -- Holtzapple witnessed the shooting and aftermath.
He testified he saw defendant Thomas P. Smith, a fellow Yorklyn Boy, carry a .30-.30 rifle, and defendant Robert Messersmith, a Newberry Street Boy, hold a shotgun.
As the car carrying Allen and her family drove up Newberry Street, he said, someone called out, "Here they come."
Holtzapple said he ran for cover. "I thought we were under attack," he said, a phrase he repeated several times while on the stand.
Holtzapple said that after the shooting stopped, he saw a man he didn't know carrying a pair of shoes, ostensibly pulled from Allen's feet by the force of the shotgun blast that killed her.
"(He) said it blew her right out of her sneakers," Holtzapple said.
Holtzapple saw Allen get out of her car, then heard the volley of gunfire as he ran into an alleyway.
He said he had to stop because four people on a balcony overlooking the alley were pointing guns at him.
"I was yelling, 'Don't shoot -- I'm white,'" he said.
Holtzapple said he ran into the Messersmith home and up to the second floor, where a man was leaning out a window and shooting. "He said, 'Grab a gun.'"
But Holtzapple said he never picked up a weapon, although he saw several guns and ammunition on a bed.
Holtzapple testified that people on Newberry Street likely mistook the Cadillac for a similar-looking car driven by Jimmy Spells, who earlier that day confronted the Newberry Street Boys on their own turf after his mother's home was firebombed.
Holtzapple said he also attended the Farquhar Park rally the day before where the mayor, then a city police officer, raised a clenched fist and shouted, "white power."
"I believed we were doing the right thing," Holtzapple said. "We stuck together 'cause we were all white. ... It was the times."
In addition to Robertson and Knouse, 48, of York, seven other men are charged with first- and second-degree murder in Allen's slaying. They are:
Messersmith, 52, of Perkiomenville
his brother, Arthur Messersmith, 47, of Windsor Township
Gregory H. Neff, 53, of York
Clarence "Sonny" Lutzinger, 49, of York
Chauncey Gladfelter, 49, of Windsor Township
William C. Ritter, 50, of Springettsbury Township
Smith, 50, of Manchester Township.
Knouse, Neff and Lutzinger waived their preliminary hearings yesterday after reaching plea agreements with prosecutors.
According to the York County District Attorney's Office, Knouse and Lutzinger, a former NSB, both agreed to serve a maximum 231/2-month sentence in exchange for their testimony. Neff, leader of the youth gang the Girarders during the riots, agreed to time served and 23 months of unsupervised probation in exchange for his cooperation.
Costopoulos termed the deals "very generous," especially in the case of Neff, who admitted to a grand jury that he fired on the Allen car three times. He pointed out that the mayor, who is not alleged to have shot at Allen, faces a murder charge.
First assistant district attorney Tom Kelley, who is prosecuting the case with first deputy district attorney Ed Paskey and senior deputy prosecutor Tim Barker, said Neff will serve less time because he has no criminal record.
"A lot of our information came from defendants who came forward and feel terrible about it," Kelley said.
Defense attorney Frank Arcuri said the plea agreements were "not a sweetheart deal, but a honeymoon."
"Usually when you plea bargain, you go up the ladder," Costopoulos said. "In this instance, it seems we are going down the ladder."
Kelley called them necessary evils.
"If you're swimming around in the swamp, you come up with alligators," he said.
Other testimony: Also testifying yesterday was York County Detective Rodney George and 73-year-old Luis Mercado, who lived on Newberry Street at the time and witnessed the shooting as he and his then-wife crouched at their bedroom window.
Former Newberry Street Boy Fred Flickinger also took the stand yesterday and testified, as expected, that he saw Mayor Robertson raise a clenched fist and yell "white power" at the Farquhar Park rally.
He also repeated his assertion that a uniformed Officer Robertson approached five or six Newberry Street Boys the day before the shooting, or perhaps the day of the shooting, and urged them to protect their neighborhoods and watch out for themselves and each other.
On cross-examination, Costopoulos asked Flickinger whether Robertson actually meant Flickinger and his friends should protect the women, children and elderly people in their neighborhoods.
But Leo Cooper, president of the York Area NAACP, who attended yesterday's hearing, took issue with Costopoulos' characterization of Robertson that night.
"He (Robertson) told them to perform commando raids" said Cooper, who again called for Robertson to immediately resign as mayor.
"Costopoulos was trying to lessen Charlie Robertson's culpability and involvement, and characterize him as a Good Samaritan rather than a co-conspirator," Cooper said.
Staff writer Mike Hoover contrib uted to this report.
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