People v. Pollock

DORAN, J.

Defendant, who was found guilty by a jury of the offense of rape, a felony, appeals from the judgment.

The evidence reveals the following: the prosecutrix was a single woman at the time of the alleged attack; she was 33 years of age, weighed 117 pounds, and was a nurse by occupation. She was living with another nurse in an apartment in Los Angeles, and, in fact, had been in Los Angeles for only six months. She first met the defendant, who was a friend of her roommate’s boy friend, on August 9, 1937. About a week later, namely on Sunday, August 15th, in the afternoon, defendant and another man who was referred to as “ Butch ’ ’ called upon the prosecutrix at her apartment. After they had stayed awhile, the prosecutrix told them she was going to a dinner party that evening. Defendant, however, persuaded her to accompany them to Glendale, as he was driving “Butch” home; he told her that she would

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be back at the apartment by 7:30 P. M. It appears that after “Butch” was let out of the car at his destination, defendant drove for about fifteen or twenty minutes until he had reached a deserted place in Burbank, off of the road. The prosecutrix was unfamiliar with the territory surrounding Los Angeles. She testified that, “ ... I asked him where we were going and he just kept quiet and I thought we were going towards home.” Defendant at that place stopped the car and thereupon proceeded to force his attentions upon the prosecutrix: She struggled and finally succeeded in getting away from the car. Defendant, however, overtook her, and completed the attack upon which the alleged offense is based. Police officers subsequently arrived upon the scene.

The physician who examined the prosecutrix at the Burbank Emergency Hospital shortly thereafter, testified that she was “in a hysterical state, and she was crying and wringing her hands ... ”, and that he “noticed that her stockings were torn and her knees were abrased as if she had fallen or been on some sharp object, and I noticed that her thighs were skinned with blood on them about two-thirds of the way down to the knees, and I examined the vaginal tract, and I noticed that the hymen, or the maidenhead had been torn and that it was bleeding and blood was still oozing from it. And, on further examination there was blood inside, coming from that wound.”