People v. Gormley

WOOD (W. J.), J.

Defendant was accused of forgery in two informations, containing five and four counts each respectively. The informations having been consolidated for trial, defendant was convicted on all charges. He has appealed from the judgments of conviction and from the order denying his motions for a new trial.

During the late months of 1942 defendant gave nine checks to various merchants and individuals in the San Fernando Valley territory and received merchandise or cash for them. The cheeks, which were in small amounts, were drawn on three different banks. In most instances they were made payable to cash. All of the checks were dishonored by the banlcs for the reason that the purported drawers had no accounts in the banks. The names of the drawers, several in number, and the residences given were fictitious. Exemplars of the handwriting of defendant were obtained by the officers, and expert witnesses testified that in their opinions the writing on the exemplars was made by the same person who wrote the dishonored checks. When he was arrested defendant told the officers that he was “going to take care of those checks out in the Valley.” He also said that the four checks purported to be signed by J. W. Murphy “were not his.”

[338]

Defendant complains of the ruling of the trial court denying his motion to set aside one of the informations, made on the ground that he had been committed without reasonable or probable cause. The transcript of the testimony received at the preliminary hearing was not made a part of the record in the superior court and therefore the point may not be considered at this time.

The taking of the exemplars of defendant’s handwriting in the police station after his arrest did not constitute a violation of his constitutional rights safeguarded by section 13 of article I of the Constitution of California. Defendant wrote voluntarily on the cards which were introduced in evidence. No force or duress was used and no promise of immunity given. He was not compelled to be a witness against himself.

(People

v.

Bundy,

168 Cal. 777, 781 [145 P. 537];