People v. Diggs

PETERS, P. J.

Freddie Diggs was charged with the unlawful sale and with the unlawful possession of marijuana, and with several priors. He was found guilty on both counts charged, and admitted priors of burglary and forgery. He appeals from the judgment entered on the verdict and from the order denying his motion for a new trial.

His sole contention on this appeal is that all of the evidence introduced against him was secured as the result of an unlawful search and seizure after an unlawful arrest. There is no merit to the contention.

The two offenses are alleged to have occurred on July 27, 1957. Sergeant Hilliard, attached to the Special Service Bureau of the Oakland Police Department, testified that about a month before July 27, 1957, he received information from a confidential informant that one Raymond Bardwell was selling narcotics in apartment 9 of 1026 Brush Street, Oakland, and that Bardwell had several other men staying with him. The informant had previously given Hilliard reliable information on such matters. The name of this informant was not requested by the defense, nor was there an objection to or a motion to strike this testimony.

[169]

On the evening of July 27, 1957, another informant by the name of Leroy Young came to Hilliard’s office and told him that Bardwell was selling narcotics at 1026 Brush Street in Oakland, and that another person, whose name he did not know, was also dealing in narcotics at that address. Outside the presence of the jury on the issue of reasonable and probable cause, Hilliard then stated that Young was searched, found to have no narcotics and only some small change, and was given five one dollar bills, the serial numbers of which were recorded. Hilliard then drove Young to within several blocks of 1026 Brush Street, and Young then left the car in company with another officer. In a short time Young returned to the automobile and handed Hilliard three marijuana cigarettes, stating that he had purchased them for $2.00 from a man in apartment 9 at 1026 Brush Street. He told Hilliard that Bardwell was not then in the apartment, but that there were several men there; that he had purchased the cigarettes from a man the others had called “Freddie”; that Freddie had taken the cigarettes from a brown paper bag that he carried in his pocket; that there were more cigarettes in that bag; that Freddie wore a straw hat, a white shirt, a vest and checkered pants. Hilliard ordered several other officers to proceed to the apartment and to arrest the man described by Young.