People v. Navarette

SPENCE, Acting P. J.

—Defendant was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Upon a trial by

[599]

jury, he was found guilty of the offense charged. Defendant appeals from the judgment of conviction and from the order denying his motion for a new trial.

The minor, aged 19 years, had been advised by her doctor that she had tuberculosis. She went to Santa Cruz and there obtained massage treatments from defendant. During the course of one of these treatments, defendant told the minor that she should have sexual intercourse with him for the sake of her health. She questioned him and upon being reassured, she submitted to an act of sexual intercourse. Upon the trial, defendant denied the act, but it appeared that on the night of his arrest, he had been questioned by the district attorney and chief of police with a stenographic reporter present, and that he had then admitted the truth of all of the material statements contained in the story of the minor. It also appeared that a doctor had examined the minor shortly after the alleged offense had been committed. The doctor testified that the hymen had been quite recently ruptured and that there was no evidence that the minor’s virginity had been previously disturbed. Defendant produced two witnesses upon the trial who gave testimony to the effect that defendant’s general reputation for morality and chastity was good.

Appellant’s contentions on this appeal are confined to claims of error in the giving of certain instructions and of the refusal to give certain other instructions to the jury. Appellant complains of the instructions given relating to the character evidence. These instructions were quite similar. One read as follows: "Evidence of good character is evidence relevant to the question of guilty or not guilty and is to be considered by you in connection with the other facts and circumstances in the case. But if you are satisfied to a moral certainty and beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty as charged in the information herein, it will be your duty to so find him, notwithstanding such evidence of good character. ’' This instruction contained a correct statement of the law.

(People

v.

Yon Perhacs,