People v. Bartsch

GRIFFIN, P. J.

Defendant-appellant was charged with violation of Penal Code, section 475a (possession of a forged check with intent to defraud), i.e., he had in his possession a completed check of Arthur W. Gilmore, dated August 17, 1962, in the sum of $150, with intent to utter and pass the same, and with intent to defraud another person.

He pleaded not guilty, waived a jury trial and was found guilty by the court. Conditional probation was granted for two years and he appealed from the order.

Facts

On July 29, 1962, Arthur W. Gilmore lost a wallet in the Lido Theater in Newport Beach. It contained, among other things, three blank checks of Gilmore on the Security First National Bank of Beverly Hills. The next morning, Gilmore went to the theater and the manager and a cleanup man (later identified as the defendant) indicated that the wallet had not been found. On August 21, 1962, an officer stopped a Chevrolet car which was speeding on Harbor Boulevard in Garden Grove. The officer noticed a fire hydrant, a real estate sign and a child’s wagon in the vehicle. He questioned the passenger in the car and the passenger (defendant) showed him a California driver’s license and said that his name was “Bill Clarke Bailey.” The officer noticed the description on the driver’s license did not fit defendant. Defendant then produced a draft card with the same name. Defendant and the driver of the car were arrested for taking the hydrant and the other articles and defendant pleaded guilty to malicious mischief. At the jail, the officer found defendant’s operator’s license in his wallet which identified him as John Bartsch, and also found a check in his wallet made out to Bill Bailey and signed “Arthur Gilmore,” in the sum of $150. On interrogation, defendant said that he was Bailey and that Bartsch was his cousin, but later he admitted that he was Bartsch. He said Bailey was his cousin and that he (Bailey) had left the identification in the wallet after borrowing it. Later, defendant said that he had obtained it from Bailey at a party, and still later he said that he went to school with Bailey and got it from him. On further interrogation, de

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fendant told the officer that Mr. Gilmore was his employer and had given him the check for some work he had done. He later said that he found the billfold on the street, and finally he admitted finding it in the Lido Theater one morning while cleaning up. He said that he had made out one of the checks to Bill Bailey and signed it Arthur W. Gilmore and had carried it with him for two or three days, and that he intended to cash it at a later date and to use Bailey’s identification card. A credit card was found in the wallet and the remaining property of Gilmore was found in defendant’s apartment, including two blank checks, as described. Defendant said that he and his roommate intended to move out of the apartment where they were living and move to a nicer one, and that they were going to pay $232 per month rent.