State v. Krueger

• Decision Date: 12 May 1896
• Citation: 35 S.W. 604,134 Mo. 262
• Parties: STATE v. KRUEGER.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

35 S.W. 604

134 Mo. 262

STATE v. KRUEGER.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

May 12, 1896.

CRIMINAL LAW — VIOLATION OF ELECTION LAWS — INDICTMENT — SUFFICIENCY.

1. Rev. St. 1889, § 3748, providing that "if any judge or clerk of an election, or any other person," shall willfully and knowingly receive and place in the ballot box any ballot not legally voted by a qualified voter, etc., applies only to judges and clerks of election, and persons ejusdem generis; and an indictment thereunder which fails to aver that defendant was such a judge or clerk, or acting in a similar capacity, is invalid.

2. Such indictment must describe the ballots, relied on by the state as being fraudulent, by their numbers, or the names of the persons by whom they purport to have been voted; must allege how and in what manner, and in whose favor, a wrong count or false return was made, in what respect the count was incorrect, or the return false, or it must aver that all these matters were to the grand jury unknown.

3. An indictment in the language of the statute is sufficient only where all the facts which constitute the offense are set forth in the statute.

Appeal from circuit court, Lafayette county; John E. Ryland, Judge.

Ralph L. Krueger was tried and convicted of an alleged violation of the statute defining and punishing illegal voting. From a judgment of conviction, defendant appeals. Reversed.

Teasdale, Ingraham & Cowherd, John Welborn, I. B. Kimbrell, J. J. Williams, John W. Beebe, and W. S. Cowherd, for appellant. R. F. Walker, Atty. Gen., and W. T. Jamison, G. A. Neal, and R. E. Ball, for the State.

BURGESS, J.

On change of venue from the criminal court of Jackson county to the criminal court of Lafayette county, the defendant was tried and convicted, and his punishment fixed at a fine of $100, under an indictment which, leaving off the formal parts, reads as follows: "The grand jurors for the state of Missouri, summoned from the body of the county of Jackson, being duly selected, impaneled, sworn, and charged to inquire of and concerning crimes and offenses within and for the body of said county and state, and true presentment make, on their oath, present and charge that on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in the year of our Lord, 1894, it being the 6th day of said month, in the year aforesaid, a general election was holden, under the constitution and laws of the state of Missouri, in and for the county of Jackson aforesaid, in several townships and election and voting precincts of the said county, and in the city of Kansas City, the said city of Kansas City then and there being within the said county aforesaid, for the choice of, and for the purpose of electing state, county, and township officers, as provided by law, the said election then and there being a regular and general election for the purpose aforesaid; that the said city of Kansas City then and there had a population of over one hundred thousand inhabitants, and whose population then and there entitled it to become a city of the first class, as provided by law, and a registration of voters thereof of said city, prior to said election, was then and there required for and had by the laws in such cases provided; that precinct five of the Second ward was then and there one of the election and voting precincts of the said city, county, and state aforesaid. And the grand jurors aforesaid, on their oath aforesaid, do further present and charge that one Charles S. Owsley, John May, Owen W. Krueger, George J. Pearse, John Moran, Harry G. Bristow, and Ralph L. Krueger, alias Dick Krueger, late of said county and state, on the 6th day of November, 1894, in the city, county, and state aforesaid, did then and there unlawfully, willfully, illegally, fraudulently, corruptly, knowingly, and feloniousy change the true and lawful result of said election at said election and voting precinct aforesaid, to wit, by unlawfully combining and confederating together before the day of said election, to wit, on the 25th day of August A. D. 1893, for the purpose of procuring an illegal, unlawful, and fraudulent resignation of voters in the precinct aforesaid, and by procuring a false, fictitious, and fraudulent list of names to be registered on the registration books in said city, and purporting to be legal and qualified voters in the precinct aforesaid, and by unlawfully combining and confederating together prior to said election aforesaid, to wit, on the 25th day of August, 1894, for the purpose of procuring corrupt and unfit persons to act as and for the judges and clerks of said election at said precinct aforesaid, who should do the will and bidding and become the agents of and for the said Charles S. Owsley, John May, Owen W. Krueger, George J. Pearse, John Moran, Harry C. Bristow, and Ralph L. Krueger, alias Dick Krueger, on the said 25th day of August, 1894, and who should, at the instance and direction of the persons aforesaid, unlawfully, fraudulently, illegally, corruptly, and feloniously place ballots, and papers purporting to be ballots, in the ballot boxes at said precinct, accredited to the false, fraudulent, and fictitious names on the registration books aforesaid, and represented as votes cast by said false, fraudulent, and fictitious names, and by causing and having the said unfit and corrupt persons aforesaid to make a wrong count of the ballots cast at said precinct of said election, and by making a false return thereof. And the grand jurors aforesaid, on their oath aforesaid, do further present and charge that the said Charles S. Owsley, John May, Owen W. Krueger, George J. Pearse, John Moran, Harry G. Bristow, and Ralph L. Krueger, alias Dick Krueger, in pursuance of the unlawful combination and confederation aforesaid, did on the 25th day of August, A. D. 1893, procure and obtain the placing on the registration books of said city, for said precinct, a large number of false, fictitious, and fraudulent names, the same purporting to be legal and qualified voters, and did obtain and procure the said names to be placed on the poll books at said election precinct, and did obtain and secure the appointment of corrupt and unfit persons to act as judges and clerks of election at said election and voting precincts, to wit, Thomas L. Tuck, Henry A. C. Jeffre, Benj. D. Ridenour, Arthur O. Clark, George O. O'Dell, Everett E. Paddock, Isaac Dreyfoss, and Joseph Pierce, on the 25th day of October, A. D. 1894, and did, by means of said unfit and corrupt persons, cause to be placed in the ballot box at said election and voting precinct a large number of ballots, and papers purporting to be ballots, which had not then and there been voted by qualified voters at said election and voting precinct, to wit, two hundred thereof, and did procure a wrong count of the ballots at said precinct, and a false return thereof, by means of the persons aforesaid, the same not being in pursuance of law or the order of the court, with the intent then and there to unlawfully, willfully, illegally, fraudulently, knowingly, corruptly, and feloniously change the true and lawful result of said election at said election and voting precinct, against the peace and dignity of the state." From the judgment, defendant appealed.

The case is before this court on the record proper, and the only question for adjudication is the sufficiency of the indictment. The indictment is under section 3748, Rev. St. 1889, which reads as folows: "If any judge or...