People v. Oosterveen

DRAPEAU, J. pro tem.

*

Defendant in this ease, Adolph Oosterveen, was convicted of violating section 580 of the Business and Professions Code, a felony. Pronouncement of judgment was suspended. He was granted probation for five years, with six months in the county jail, and upon condition that he refrain from practicing medicine in this state during the period of probation. He appeals from the “final judgment of conviction,” (Pen. Code §1237, subd. 1), from the order granting probation, from the order denying his motion for a new trial, and “from any order made after judgment.”

The story of the facts in this case begins with a vitamin salesman. This salesman was in the office of a chiropractic doctor, Russell S. Andrew. The salesman told the doctor that if he wanted to buy a fake medical degree he could put him in touch with Mr. Oosterveen, who would sell him one.

The degree was to enable Dr. Andrew to work as an intern in a hospital, and thereby circumvent the requirements of college and medical degrees necessary to qualify him for a license as a medical doctor.

The doctor said he was interested. So the vitamin salesman called Mr. Oosterveen on the telephone, and arranged for an appointment for the doctor.

Next day Dr. Andrew went to see Mr. Oosterveen at his office. Mr. Oosterveen told the doctor that he would sell him a degree, purportedly from a defunct university in Mexico.

After thinking it over, Dr. Andrew decided to tell the district attorney of Los Angeles County and officers of the state medical board what was going on. They instructed him to go ahead with the purchase of the degree.

At their next meeting, Mr. Oosterveen told Dr. Andrew that the fee for the degree would be $1,850 or $2,000, and that he would attempt to get him in the class of 1943, because that was the last year of this particular school’s existence, and that “dead men do not talk.”

Without further recounting the meetings and negotiations between these two men, Dr. Andrew finally went to Mr. Oosterveen’s office, with $1,850 in fifty and one hundred

[622]

dollar bills. The money was furnished him by police officers and agents of the medical board. These officers accompanied Dr. Andrew to Mr. Oosterveen’s office, but stayed outside while Dr. Andrew went in with the money.