People v. Briggs

PRESTON, P. J.

The defendant George Briggs was convicted by a jury of a violation of the provisions of section 288 of the Penal Code. He made a motion for a new trial. The motion was denied and from the order denying a new trial and from the judgment of conviction he prosecutes this appeal.

The complaining witness was Edith Eifert, a girl of thirteen years of age. She and her sister, Iola Eifert, aged twelve years, had been in the care and custody of the defend

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ant and his wife for three years, when this charge against defendant was made. They were placed there by their father, in whose custody they had been awarded by the superior court.

The defendant was convicted solely upon the testimony of these two girls. Edith testified that defendant committed the lewd and lascivious acts complained of at 7:30 P. M., on a Saturday evening, in the month of January, 1931 (the exact date she could not recall), in defendant’s bed, in his home at No. 3069 Fifth Avenue, in the city of Sacramento, in the presence of her sister Iola and defendant’s wife, who were also at the time occupying the same bed; in other words, said four above-mentioned persons were all occupying the same bed when the lewd and lascivious acts were alleged to have been committed. She further testified: “He tried to put his privates in mine when he was on top of me and I screamed and cried and finally he got angry with me and he told me to go upstairs to bed, and I tried to get out of bed, and he caught holt of me. He turned the light on and then he told me if he ever caught me over to Arata’s, he would give me the worst beating I ever had.”

Her sister Iola testified that she was in the same bed at the time and saw the defendant commit the acts charged against him, and watched the performance about twenty-five minutes.

The testimony of these girls, relative to the lewd and lascivious conduct of defendant, was directly and emphatically contradicted, not only by the defendant himself, but also by Mrs. Briggs, the defendant’s wife. Circumstances related by the brother of defendant also directly contradicted the testimony of the two girls. They all positively denied that the alleged acts of lewd and lascivious conduct were committed, and, also, related facts and circumstances occurring on the evening of the night in question, which, if true, would show that the story told by these girls was undoubtedly a fabrication.