People v. Cruse

JAMES, J.

Appeal from a judgment following conviction on the charge that appellant did cause and contribute to the dependent state of a girl eighteen years of age. The judgment provided as follows: “No cause having been shown why judgment should not be entered, you, Samuel Cruse, should be and are now fined by this court in the amount of five hundred dollars, and in case said fine is not paid, you shall be confined in the county jail of Los Angeles County for the term of six months.” No complaint is made as to the sufficiency of this judgment in form.

The information charged that on the fifteenth day of March, 1913, in the county of Los Angeles, appellant caused and contributed to the dependency of the girl named, and it is alleged that the latter was then and there a dependent person within the meaning of the acts of the legislature, in that she was in danger of growing up to lead an immoral life “by reason of the acts of the defendant.” An allegation followed setting forth that the particular offense was that appellant had had upon one occasion sexual intercourse with the girl named. Under this charge it was necessary for the people to establish, not only the fact that the act of intercourse described had been committed, but also that the girl mentioned in the information was, prior to the filing of the charge against appellant, a dependent person within the

[499]

meaning of the statute, and that the offending conduct of appellant caused or contributed to that condition.

(People

v.

Pierro,

17 Cal. App. 741, [121 Pac. 689].) The amendment to the General Juvenile Act of 1909 (Stats. 1909, p. 213), as found in the .statutes of 1911 at page 658, defines the term “dependent person.” Such person is first declared to be one under the age of twenty-one years. Then follows sixteen subdivisions describing various conditions and habits which give to the person the character of a “dependent.” Section 16 declares that any person under the age of twenty-one years, “who from any cause is in danger of growing up to lead an idle, dissolute or immoral life,” is a dependent. Section 26 of the same act declares that any person who shall “encourage, cause, or contribute to the dependency or delinquency of such person” shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. The punishment prescribed is a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or imprisonment in the county jail not more than one year, or both the fine and imprisonment. Appellant presents for consideration a number of questions involving the matter of the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the judgment; of alleged errors of the court in giving and refusing to give certain instructions. It must be admitted at the outset that had the case been submitted to the jury upon the evidence introduced by the prosecution alone, there would have been serious doubt as to the sufficiency of such evidence to sustain the conviction. The appellant was a motor car conductor, one of the terminal points of his runs being at the city of Long Beach. The girl complainant lived a few miles outside of that city and traveled frequently to town, where she performed errands and also attended business college. She testified that she became acquainted with appellant while traveling upon ears where he was employed. She testified that on a particular day in March, 1913, she met the appellant at Long Beach by chance about one o’clock as she was on her way to attend her classes; that appellant persuaded her to take a walk with him in the direction of the beach, and that the two went down some steps past an old bath-house; that appellant, while they were at the rear or side of the bath-house in an obscure place, endeavored to persuade her to submit to his desires, which she refused; that thereupon he pulled her down and that she