People v. Miller

FINCH, P. J.

In appropriate language the indictment charges the defendant with the offense of maintaining “a place where intoxicating liquor was sold, kept and bartered” in violation of law. He was convicted and this appeal is from the "judgment and the order denying his motion for a new trial.

In the month of April, 1924, the defendant conducted a pool-room at the place stated in the indictment.' Adjoining his place of business was a building with a flat roof, the walls of the building extending eighteen inches or more above the roof. This adjoining building was unoccupied, except that church services were conducted therein at times. For convenience, this building will be referred to as the church. At the rear of defendant’s place of business was a porch roof covered with tar paper. The porch roof, when reached, furnished a convenient means of access to the roof of the church.

William Glynn, a federal prohibition enforcement officer, testified that on the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth days of April, 1924, he purchased intoxicating liquor from defendant at his place of business; that on the 15th the defendant, by means of a ladder, got a bottle of gin from the roof of the church and served the witness with a drink therefrom; that during these three days the defendant served intoxi

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cating liquor to many other persons; that the defendant said he had as good whisky as there was in Oroville and that he was the only man in town who handled gin, for which he paid eighteen dollars a gallon; that there were three women in the defendant’s place of business for whom the witness purchased drinks. T. Kaare, a private detective, employed by the district attorney, testified that on the 13th of April, 1924, he saw “eight or ten” persons drinking intoxicating liquor in defendant’s place of business; that he was present with Glynn and saw him purchase intoxicating liquors, as testified by him, and saw others there buying drinks; that at all times there were women there soliciting the detectives to buy them drinks; and that at one time he saw the defendant take a bottle of liquor from under the counter and at another time from a bedroom near the counter. The sheriff of Butte County and the constable of Oroville Township testified that they raided the defendant’s place of business on the 19th of April and found six gallon jugs of liquor in a box on the church roof, inside of the wall, and that there was a well-defined trail over defendant’s porch roof to the box containing the jugs of liquor. The liquor contained more than fifty per cent of alcohol by volume. The defendant testified that he had never seen either of the detectives at his place of business or sold them liquor; that he had never kept intoxicating liquor there, and that he did not know of there being any liquor on the church roof. No other witness testified for the defense.