People v. Burkett

California Court of Appeal Mar 26, 1969 No. Crim. 15233Published

Before: Kingsley

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Holding. The court held that the evidence was sufficient to support a forgery conviction under Penal Code section 470 because the photocopied bills contained forged seals and signatures, and that the conduct did not fall under the misdemeanor provisions of section 648.

Issues

Whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain a conviction for forgery under Penal Code section 470.
Whether the defendant's conduct constituted a misdemeanor under Penal Code section 648 rather than a felony under section 470.
Whether the photocopied bills qualified as forged instruments under the 'catch-all' clause of section 470 regarding seals and handwriting.

Disposition. affirmed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“We conclude that the evidence was sufficient to sustain a finding of guilt of a violation of section 470.”

“It follows that the photocopies were forgeries of both the “seal” and the “handwriting” of someone other than defendant and his associates. That is all that is required to constitute the crime charged.”

KINGSLEY, J.

Defendant was charged with forgery, in violation of section 470 of the Penal Code.

Trial by jury was duly waived; he was found guilty as charge

a motion for a new trial was made and

denied;

probation was denied and he was sentenced to state prison. He has appealed from the judgment and from the order denying a new trial. We affirm the judgment and dismiss the appeal from the nonappealable order.

At about 3 p.m., on September 24, 1967, the owner of a coin operating laundry cleared a coin changing machine

of the paper dollars therein. When the clearing operation was repeated, at about 8:30 a.m., on September 25, 1967, the machine was found to contain a number of pieces of paper, on one side of which was imprinted (by photocopy) the facsimile of a dollar bill. At about 1:45 a.m., that morning, a police officer had observed defendant, together with Tom Dancer and a man named Massey, clustered around the coin changer and the officer heard a sound similar to that made by coins dropping into the outlet receptacle of the machine. A woman, subsequently identified as Kathy Burkett (Cromwell) was seated in a vehicle parked about one-half block away.

On September 28th, at about 2:50 a.m., Officer Serrano went to a residence where he had been informed that Dancer could be found.

He knocked on the door and defendant answered. The officer asked for Dancer, defendant told the officer that

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Dancer was not present. At the officer’s request, defendant admitted him to the house, where he found the female above referred to. She gave the name of Kathy Burkett, although it was later discovered that her true name was Catherine llene Cromwell. The officer searched the house, finding in a nightstand other photocopies of dollar bills. Some of these were duplicates of the photocopies found in the laundry coin machine. The officer also found some real dollar bills, two of which had the same serial numbers as appeared on the photocopies found in the machine. The bedroom in which some of the evidence was found contained both male and female clothing. Defendant was then arrested.

People v. Burkett

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KINGSLEY, J.

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