Aguilera v. Superior Court

REPPY, J.

Defendant was indicted by a Los Angeles County Grand Jury for the felony of pandering (Pen. Code, § 266i, subd. (d)). Defendant moved to set aside the indictment under section 995 of the Penal Code. The motion was denied. This petition for writ of prohibition followed.

The indictment alleges that: “ [Defendant, George Aguilera, did . . . encourage Michelle Dupree [hereinafter Michelle], an inmate of a house of prostitution and other places in which prostitution is . . . allowed, to remain there as an inmate, by promises . . . and other . . . scheme.”

Subparagraph (d) of section 226i is but one of several sub-paragraphs delineating various aspects of pandering. Although some of the other subparagraphs have been construed in appellate decisions, this one has not. Typically, the segment of the pandering law referred to has multiple verbs and prepositional phrases. Culling it down to the phraseology apposite to the charge and circumstances in this case, it reads as follows:

“any person who: ... by promises ... or by any . . . scheme . . . encourages an inmate of a house of prostitution, or any other place in which prostitution is . . . allowed, to remain therein as an inmate ... is punishable by imprisonment. ...”

The chief point of defendant in support of his petition is that the valid evidence presented to the grand jury shows only two uncompensated acts of solicitation by defendant on behalf of Michelle in that, although to a minor degree such acts encourage a prostitute to remain one (at least for the performance of those acts of prostitution), such solicitation having that type of incidental encouragement is covered by another code section which places such activity at the misdemeanor level. (§ 318, Pen. Code.) For the purpose of making a ruling in this review, we can concede a construction of Penal Code, section 266i, subdivision (d) which requires something more than one or two isolated uncompensated acts of solicitation in order to establish the requisite encouragement.

The following circumstances can be drawn from what we consider the valid parts of the testimony of Michelle at the grand jury proceedings:

There was a practice among those dealing in the business of

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