People v. Haley

WILSON, J.

Defendant was charged with a violation of section 653f of the Penal Code—soliciting one Paul Howard to commit and join in the commission of the crime of perjury. She was tried by a jury and found guilty. A motion in arrest of judgment and a motion for a new trial were made and denied. Judgment was not pronounced but proceedings were suspended and defendant was placed on probation for a period of five years. She has appealed from the order denying a new trial and has purportedly appealed from the nonexistent judgment.

This prosecution arises from a pretense made by defendant that she had been injured by an automobile driven by one Dr. Brotman, who had been her attending physician for

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some time previous to the date of the feigned injury. Dr. Brotman’s car did not strike defendant and her claim was spurious.

After having personally accused Dr. Brotman of striking her with his car she telephoned him on two or three occasions asking “What are you going to do about it!” and he replied that he would report the matter to his insurance company, which he did. Later she telephoned the doctor that the claim agent of the insurance company had told her and her attorney that there was no evidence of any accident and refused to pay her anything. She insisted that Dr. Brotman pay her medical bills, which he refused to do.

Defendant then sought the assistance of Paul Howard in attempting to prove her alleged injury. She telephoned him to come to her home and upon his arrival he found her in bed; she told him she had been injured in an accident and related the time, place and speed of the ear which she said had struck her; she said it was a doctor’s car but did not tell Howard the name of the doctor; she said she wanted Howard to be a witness in her behalf and to say he' saw the accident. He asked her how he could be a witness when he did not see any accident, to which she replied that she would tell him what to say. On a second occasion she told Howard she would give him all the facts and tell him how to describe the accident—that she was in the crosswalk when the doctor’s car knocked her down; that she had $728 in her purse; that someone helped her up and later she noticed the money was gone. She told him to say he had been close by the scene of the accident. She said there were other persons who offered to be witnesses but she did not take their names because they had been too far away from the intersection; that she had picked Howard because he was living near by; that she did not know how much would come out of the incident but whatever she got she would give Howard a part of it. She described the car that she claimed had struck her but did not give the doctor’s name and did not give the license number. On a third occasion the same matters were discussed and she told Howard the license number of Dr. Brotman’s ear and gave him $20. Howard asked her how she would circumvent a lawsuit and she said she would see he was taken care of if he would be a witness for her; that many people settled their eases out of court and she would wait for a good offer.