People v. Brown

SHINN, Acting P. J. Defendant was convicted in a court trial of contributing to the delinquency of one Janet Ryan, who was of the age of 16 years. He was charged by information with offering the girl employment in a house of prostitution. Upon finding defendant guilty, the court suspended proceedings and placed him on probation. Defendant gave notice of appeal from the “judgment” and from an order denying his motion for new trial.

Proof of the allegations of the information would have established his guilt of the offense charged. (People v. Cohen, 62 Cal.App. 521 [217 P. 78]; People v. Perfetti, 88 Cal.App609 [264 P. 318]; People v. Lamanuzzi, 77 Cal.App. 301 [246 P. 557].) Under his specification of insufficiency of the evidence, appellant says: ‘ ‘ There is nothing in the record tending to show that Appellant committed any act or acts which tended to cause or encourage the Complaining Witness to come within any of the provisions of any of the subdivisions of Section 700 of the Welfare and Institutions Code; nor is there any evidence that any of his acts contributed to the delinquency of said minor; there is no evidence at all to sustain this conviction. ’ ’

The evidence disclosed that the girl made a trip to a place called “Fisher’s” with another girl and three boys. Fisher’s was described as a “ colored place where they have a juke box there and you can dance.” Upon her second visit she met defendant and saw him there upon four occasions. She called him on the telephone once or twice and upon one occasion [775]he took her to dinner. She testified that she had had drinks at Fisher’s but that none was served to her when she was there with defendant. Police Officer Danforth testified that upon the occasion when she was arrested she was at Fisher’s, seated at a table drinking liquor, which she testified she had poured for herself in the kitchen, and defendant was seated on a couch drinking milk. She testified at the preliminary-examination as follows: “Q. At any of those times you were up in Fisher’s with Mr. Brown, did you ever have a conversation with him in which he stated that he wanted you to work for him in a house of prostitution? A. Not at Fisher’s. Q. Did such conversation take place somewhere else? A. Yes. Q. Where was that? A. When he was taking me home. Q. Was that on an occasion when you had been to Fisher’s and you were on your way home from Fisher’s? A. Yes. Q. Were you to work for him in San Francisco or in Los Angeles? Mb. Goedon: Just a moment, now. I submit that calls for a conclusion. I would like to have the conversation. The Cotjbt : State the conversation. Q. Bv Mb. Tobet : What was the conversation that you had with Mr. Brown in that regard? A. I don’t remember the exact words or anything, but it was the second time he had seen me up there. I went up there with a girl, her and myself. Q. Just the time of the conversation, now; what was the conversation? A. Well, he asked me if I had been in Fisher’s much before, and I said no. I don’t remember exactly, you know, the exact words or anything, but it just came around if I wanted to work there, that is all. Q. Was there anything said as to whether that was to be in Los Angeles or in San Francisco? A. No, sir. Q. Was the same subject mentioned on more than one occasion ? A. No, sir. Q. Was anything mentioned as to the type of place that it was to be? A. Well, when he-I thought it was going to be- Q. Was anything said as to whether it was to be a place like Fisher’s, or something different from Fisher’s? A. No, it would not be anything like Fisher’s. Q. What was said in that regard ? A. At first I thought it was as a hostess, you know, that he was talking about before I thought any further about it, and I just got the idea that it was something like Fisher’s place, and that is what I thought, and I said something about it, and he said it would not be anything like Fisher’s. Did he say whether it would be better or worse than Fisher’s? A. No, I just-he said it would be better, because I said, ‘Does it look like Fisher’s place, anything like