People v. Koosistra

TYLER, P. J.

Defendant, by information, was charged jointly with one John De Young with a violation of section 21 of the Juvenile Court Act (Stats. 1915, p. 1225). He was separately tried, convicted, and sentenced to imprisonment in the county jail for a period of eight months. This appeal is from such judgment of conviction and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

The information charges that defendants, on or about the first day of March, 1921,” . . . did then and there willfully and unlawfully show and exhibit to one Laura Duncan, then and there a female person under the age of twenty-one years, to wit, of the age of sixteen years, various and divers lewd and obscene films, pictures and photographs and did then and there induce and persuade the said Laura Duncan to disrobe and to pose and expose her person, in a nude condition, before them, the said Joseph Koosistra and John De Young, and to permit them to photograph her, the said Laura Duncan while in such nude condition and to make and they did then and there make various lewd and obscene and indecent photographs and pictures of her, the said Laura Duncan, in such nude condition; all of which willful and unlawful acts and course of conduct of Joseph Koosistra and John De Young, as aforesaid, did thereby then and there manifestly tend to and did encourage, cause and contribute to the said Laura Duncan becoming such a person as is described in section 1 of an act of the legislature of the state of California entitled ‘An Act to be known as the Juvenile Court Law,’ etc., approved June 5, 1915, to wit: a person under twenty-one years of age who is leading or from any cause is in danger of leading an idle, dissolute and immoral life.”

In support of the offense charged it was proved at the trial that Laura Duncan, the minor mentioned in the information, was of the age of sixteen years, and that in company with certain male and female companions she visited apartments maintained by defendants. Upon the occasion of her first visit she met defendant and was by

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his codefendant photographed in a group of some eighteen persons, old and young. This photograph was introduced in evidence, and it shows several of the women contained in the group, including Laura Duncan, practically in a naked state. She again visited the same premises on at least two subsequent occasions, and was then shown pictures of women in the nude, and was so photographed by defendant in company with her girl companions. Other evidence shows that on at least one occasion Laura Duncan remained on the premises until an early hour of the morning, during which time music and dancing was indulged in by the frequenters of the place.