People v. Young

RICHARDS, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment which followed the conviction of the defendant of a misdemeanor consisting in the violation of section 21 of the juvenile court law. The charging part of the information alleged as follows:

“The said William Young, on or about the twenty-sixth day of March, A. D. nineteen hundred and eighteen, at the city and county of San Francisco, state of California, did then and there willfully and unlawfully commit an act which did then and there tend to cause and encourage one Beatrice McGuire, a female person under the age of twenty-one years, to wit, of the age of eighteen years, to come within the provisions of subdivision 11 of section 1 of said juvenile court law, as follows: Said William Young did then and there willfully and unlawfully then and there have and accomplish an act of sexual intercourse with and upon the said Beatrice McGuire, said defendant William Young not being then or there the husband of the said Beatrice McGuire, all of which willful and unlawful acts and course of conduct as aforesaid did thereby then and there manifestly tend to and did encourage, cause and contribute to the said Beatrice McGuire becoming and remaining such a person as is described in section 1, subdivision

[281]

11, of the juvenile court law of the state of California, to wit, a person under the age of twenty-one years, who is leading or from any cause is in danger of leading an idle, dissolute, lewd and immoral life; contrary etc.”

[1]

The first contention of the appellant is that the evidence was insufficient to warrant his conviction, the basis of this contention being that the story of the complaining witness was utterly improbable. We have examined the record with a view to determining the merit of this contention; and upon such examination we are entirely satisfied that the testimony of the complaining witness, while such as might be expected to have been given by a person of immature and feeble intellect, was not so inherently improbable as to justify the reversal of this case upon that ground; but that, on the other hand, the jury having seen the prosecuting witness and heard her story, would be the best judges of the credibility of -her statements; and having believed her and rendered their verdict accordingly, we should not “undertake to disturb that verdict.