September 20, 1927

MRS. BUSTANOBY FACES AUTO DRIVING CHARGE

Patrolman Puts Her To Walking Test Before Arrest--Two Companions Are Fined

A fracas which arose when a policeman accused them of riding in an automobile with headlights turned out, at Fifty-second Street and Fifth Ave. soon after midnight yesterday morning, resulted in the arrest of Mrs. Susan D. Wintowitz and Luke Kelly, both of 327 West 55th Street, and of Mrs. Demarie [Doris?] Easton, who later said she was the wife of Jacques Bustanoby. Mrs. Easton was once a "Follies" girl and later a motion picture actress. Mrs. Wintowitz, the girl she said was her daughter, a police dog, Kelly and Mrs. Easton, were marshalled into squad formation and marched off to the Forty-seventh Street Police Station by Patrolman Francis Murphy, assisted by Patrolman Rossi, whom he pressed into service when, he said, his prisoners became boisterous. According to Murphy, he stopped the car which was going East in Fifty-second Street and told Mrs. Easton who was driving that the lights were not on. She replied by calling him a big stiff, he asserted, and demanded to know if he had no better way of occupying his time. Suspecting intoxication, he said, he asked her to get out and walk in a straight line. This test further convinced him. But at this point Kelly shouted that as an ex-service man he had a constitutional right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness, Murphy asserted, while Mrs. Wintowitz produced a flask and invited Kelly to partake of it. When arrested the three insisted they were not drunk. Magistrate Francis S. McQuade fined Miss Wintowitz and Kelly $10 each in Westside Court for disorderly conduct. Mrs. Easton, charged with driving while intoxicated, was held at $500 bail for a hearing September 26th in traffic court by Magistrate H. Stanley Raneud. Mr. Bustanoby arranged bail. At Bustanoby's club Basque, 80 West Fifty-second Street, the address given by Mrs. Easton to the police, it was said that both he and she had left the country for a few days. Why she used her former name of Mrs. Easton was not learned. Mrs. Easton caused a policeman to be arrested on charges of assault two years ago, but the case was discontinued when she failed to appear against him.