Bodine v. State

• Decision Date: 10 March 1915
• Docket Number: (No. 3463.)
• Citation: 174 S.W. 609
• Parties: BODINE v. STATE.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

174 S.W. 609

BODINE v. STATE.

(No. 3463.)

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

March 10, 1915.

Appeal from Galveston County Court, at Law; J. C. Canty, Judge.

Mrs. R. T. Bodine was convicted of crime, and she appeals. Reversed and remanded.

T. C. Turnley and King & Hughes, all of Galveston, for appellant. C. C. McDonald, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

DAVIDSON, J.

This prosecution was under an indictment preferred by the grand jury and transferred to the county court at law. The charging part of the indictment is as follows:

"That Mrs. R. T. Bodine, * * * on or about the 15th day of the month of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fourteen, in the said county of Galveston, * * * then and there was the lessee and tenant, and occupied and controlled a house, building, edifice and tenement, then and there situate; and the said Mrs. R. T. Bodine did then and there keep and was concerned in keeping said house, building, edifice and tenement as a place where men and women meet, and did then and there meet by mutual appointment, for the purpose of sexual intercourse; against the peace and dignity of the state."

So it will be seen the indictment charges that the place kept by appellant was an assignation house where men and women met by appointment to have sexual intercourse. The testimony from Grace Bell and her paramour, Sproule, say they met by agreement at Mrs. Bodine's house, and Sproule rented a room from her which they occupied for illicit intercourse purposes. Mrs. Bodine denies the transaction, and says she has never known of any person making appointment to come to her hotel for immoral purposes, and that she had not knowingly permitted people to make appointments for such purposes at her house. She said that Grace Bell lived with her some time ago, but since she left the hotel she had never seen her, and if she came there with a man or men she knew nothing of it. This is the case on the facts. The court charged the jury that the indictment charged appellant did on or about the 15th day of March, 1914, in the county of Galveston and state of Texas, keep a disorderly house, a house kept for prostitution, and where prostitutes were permitted to resort and reside for the purpose of plying their vocation, and that the defendant, Mrs. R. T. Bodine, did then and there keep said disorderly house, and she was then and there concerned in keeping said disorderly house for prostitution, and for prostitutes to resort and...