People v. Oster

MUSSELL, J.

Appellant was charged in an information with three counts of issuing bank checks without sufficient funds with intent to defraud, in violation of section 476a of the Penal Code. Count one alleged the issuance of a $50 check to an employee of the U. S. Grant Hotel in San Diego. Counts two and three each alleged the issuance of $25 checks to an employee of the San Diego Hotel. The check described in count one was drawn on the Main and Ninth Street Branch of the Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association and the checks in counts two and three were drawn on the International Office of the Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association.

Appellant appeared in the superior court in

propria persona,

pleaded not guilty and waived appointment of counsel and trial by jury. After he was found guilty as charged in the information, he moved for a new trial. This motion was denied and he was granted three years probation conditioned upon his spending the first 90 days in the county jail, making restitution of $150 to those defrauded and paying a fine of $150.

The only issues raised by this appeal are whether the evidence was sufficient to support the conviction and whether there was a constitutional waiver of a jury trial.

It was stipulated at the trial by appellant and the deputy district attorney conducting the prosecution that appellant wrote a total of four checks, two at the San Diego Hotel and

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two at the U. S. Grant Hotel in said city; that the two checks written at the U. S. Grant Hotel were written March 11th and March 12th and that each check was for the sum of $50; that appellant wrote two checks at the San Diego Hotel, one on March 26th for $25 and the other on March 30th for a like amount; that these cheeks were cashed by appellant and that payment was not made on any of them; that the checks dated March 11th and 12th were drawn on the Ninth and Main Street Branch of the Bank of America in Los Angeles and at the time the checks were written appellant did not have an account in that bank and has never had an account in said bank; that the other two checks, the ones written March 26th and 30th, were drawn on the International Office of the Bank of America at 220 North Main Street, Los Angeles; that Mr. Oster at one time had an account at that bank, in the months of September, October and to the middle of November, 1953, and that the bank closed out that account November 18, 1953; that at the time these checks were cashed and at the time they were written “there was no discussion with the people who cashed them regarding any lack of their validity or any lack of funds that would not cause the checks to be made good.”