People v. Traub

DOOLING, J.

Appellant Traub with others was convicted by a jury of conspiracy to violate Penal Code, section 266h (pimping), and section 240 of the San Francisco Police Code (prostitution). He was placed on five years probation on condition that he serve six months in the county jail and pay a fine of $500.

He claims on appeal: 1. that the evidence is not sufficient to support the verdict; 2. that the testimony of the accomplice is not sufficiently corroborated under Penal Code, section 1111; 3. that the court erred in admitting the evidence of three separate conversations with appellant. These contentions compel a rather detailed recital of the evidence.

Miss Susan Maurice testified to the following:

On September 9, 1958, she telephoned to one Kankas, a bellhop at the Lankershim Hotel in San Francisco, seeking employment as a prostitute. Pursuant to arrangement made with

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Kankas she registered at the hotel that night shortly after 8 p. m. After going to the room assigned to her she was warned by Kankas that the police were coming and to get out the back way. The police stopped her and she returned to her room. Later that night Kankas told her that he wanted her to meet someone. Subsequently appellant, the hotel manager, came to her room. He asked her why the police had questioned her and she replied that there was some question about her age. He commended her on the way she had handled herself and told her that he wanted her to work at the hotel. He said that the “cut” would be 60-40, 40 per cent for the bellman, and that she should average at least $500 per week.

He told her not to begin work that night, because the police knew her room number, and might return, but to come back the following day with luggage, clothes and cosmetics, so that she would appear to be a permanent guest. He advised her to take a different room and to get some sort of identification to avoid a repetition of that evening’s trouble and told her not to worry because everything would be taken care of.

The witness acquired a social security card under a fictitious name and returned to the hotel the following day. Appellant met her there, again suggested that she take a different room and repeated that she would be making $500 per week and that “it would be a gold mind [sic].” He added that he had another place and said that if Miss Maurice “worked out” she could work there and earn twice as much. Appellant introduced her to two other bellboys and in the presence of these two and Kankas told her that he wanted her to work the day shift with Bill, one of the bellboys present. He said that he also wanted her to work with the other bellhops, along with the other girls and if they had any other business they would give it to her, that the other girls were lazy and there were going to be some changes made. He told her to register under the fictitious name shown on her social security card. He said that “he knew why [she] was there” and told her not to acknowledge him anywhere unless he approached her first.