People v. Green

BARNARD, P. J.

The defendant was charged with a violation of section 288a of the Penal Code, alleged to have been committed on June 14, 1956. He was also charged with two prior convictions. He pleaded not guilty but admitted the prior convictions. He was represented at the trial by the

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public defender. A jury found him guilty as charged, and he was sentenced to imprisonment. This appeal is from the judgment.

It appears from the uncontradicted evidence that the defendant met the complaining witness for the first time at a bar in Palm Springs on the evening of June 14. Later that night the defendant offered to take her home and she accepted. She told him where she lived, but when they reached the main road he turned in the opposite direction, and against her repeated remonstrances drove for a considerable distance at about 60 miles an hour. He finally stopped at a small house on a side road, and said that he wanted to go in to see a sick friend of his and that he would then take her home. There was no one else in the house, and the events involved in this charge occurred there. It is unnecessary to set forth the surrounding facts as testified to by the complaining witness. It is sufficient to say that if her story was believed the evidence was amply sufficient to sustain the verdict. The defendant did not take the stand, and the jury believed the complaining witness.

After she finally arrived at her home the complaining witness told her sister what had occurred and, on June 15, she reported it to a justice of the peace and to a deputy sheriff who was called in. As a result of that conversation the deputy sheriff went to the defendant’s home with a warrant for his arrest. This warrant recited that a violation of “288a sex perversion” was charged. The officer did not find the defendant at home and returned on the evening of June 16. When the defendant came to the door the officer asked him if he was Prank Green. The defendant replied that he was not Prank Green, that his name was Williams, and that he thought Prank Green was somewhere in Palm Springs. The officer asked him for some identification showing that he was Mr. Williams, and the defendant stated that he had left his identification in Los Angeles. The officer had seen a woman in the house and asked the defendant if he could speak to this lady. The defendant said he would rather not but the officer insisted, and just then the woman came to the door. The officer recognized the woman and asked her in the presence of the defendant if this was Prank Green, and she said that it was. The officer then produced the warrant and told the defendant that he was taking him into custody. The defendant asked to see the warrant and the officer let him read it.