Davis v. Superior Court

DOOLING, J. The petitioners are joined as codefendants in the indictment discussed in Stern v. Superior Court, this day decided (ante, p. 9 [177 P.2d 308]). Petitioner Stock is a licensed physician and petitioner Davis acted as his office nurse. As in the case of Anderson v. Superior Court (ante, p. 22 [177 P.2d 315]) certain of the substantive counts have been quashed as to these defendants. In addition to the points disposed of in Stern v. Superior Court these petitioners argue that there is no legal evidence to connect them with the alleged conspiracy.

There is evidence that petitioner Davis referred many women to Stern for the purpose of having abortions performed and received a percentage of his fees from such abortions, that she participated in hiring an unlicensed woman to act as one of Stern’s nurses and that she paid some of Stern’s bills at his Richmond establishment in Contra Costa County. This evidence fully supports the indictment as to her.

There is evidence that petitioner Stock visited Stern’s place of business in Richmond and asked to be permitted to go into the surgery and watch Stern work, but that Stern refused his request; that Stock made the arrangements to rent the place of business in Oakland to which Stern moved after the police closed his place of business in Richmond; that Stock procured and paid the fee on a business license in Stock’s name for the Oakland address; and that Stock arranged with the owner of the Oakland building for Stern to move in, saying that Stern was his X-ray technician.

Stock had been using drugs to excess and went into a sanitarium about the time the Oakland place was opened and continued to be hospitalized until after August 23, 1946, the date on which Stern’s place of business was finally closed. He appeared before the grand jury and denied all knowledge [27]of Stern’s illegal business. The grand jury manifestly was not bound by Stock’s denials, if it chose to disbelieve them.

The evidence of Stock’s presence in the Richmond establishment and his desire to see Stern operate is some evidence of his knowledge of the character of Stern’s business; and his subsequent conduct in arranging for Stern to occupy a place in Oakland which he agreed to rent and for which he procured a business license in his own name, while it might be innocent if he believed Stern to be an X-ray technician, takes on a different color if he knew Stern to be a professional abortionist.