City of St. Louis v. Washington

• Citation: 223 S.W.2d 858
• Decision Date: 18 October 1949
• Docket Number: No. 27688.,27688.
• Parties: CITY OF ST. LOUIS v. WASHINGTON.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Missouri (US)

223 S.W.2d 858

CITY OF ST. LOUIS v. WASHINGTON.

No. 27688.

St. Louis Court of Appeals. Missouri.

October 18, 1949.

Rehearing Denied November 18, 1949.

"Not to be reported in State Reports."

Morris A. Shenker, St. Louis, for appellant.

James E. Crowe, City Counselor, St. Louis, John P. McCammon, Associate City Counselor, St. Louis, Frank A. Neun, Assistant City Counselor, St. Louis, for respondent.

McCULLEN, Judge.

This appeal is from a conviction on a charge of violating an ordinance of the City of St. Louis, Missouri. An information was filed in City Court No. 1 of said city charging that defendant Morris Washington on the 3d day of September, 1947, in the City of St. Louis and State of Missouri, at 237 South Jefferson "did then and there make, establish and aid or assist in making and establishing a lottery, gift and enterprise and scheme of drawing in the nature of a lottery. (Policy)."

Upon a trial in said City Court defendant was found guilty as charged and his punishment assessed at a fine of $100 and costs. Defendant appealed to the St. Louis Court of Criminal Correction where a trial before the court resulted in a judgment exactly similar to the judgment rendered in said City Court. From the judgment of the Court of Criminal Correction defendant appealed to this court.

Prior to the commencement of the trial in the Court of Criminal Correction defendant filed a motion to suppress evidence in which he alleged that police officers of the City of St. Louis had in their possession certain evidence in the nature of alleged top sheets, take sheets, policy result ballots, policy notebooks and other paraphernalia which was intended to be used against defendant in the trial. Defendant also alleged in said motion that said evidence was obtained by a search and seizure before defendant's arrest; that at the time of such search and seizure said officers had no warrant for the arrest of defendant and that said search and seizure were unreasonable, illegal and violative of Sections 15 and 19 of Article I of the Constitution of the State of Missouri, Mo.R.S.A., and that to permit the use of said evidence would be compelling defendant to give testimony against himself.

Testimony on defendant's motion to suppress evidence was heard before the court, at which hearing Robert Griffin, a police officer who was a member of the Secret Service Gambling Division of the Police Department of the City of St. Louis, testified that on the day in question he went to the building in which defendant claimed to live. The witness stated: "There are a lot of tenants in the same building," that the part of the building into which he went was not Washington's home. The witness further testified that he and his associate officer had seen the same persons going in and out of the building at 12 noon and 5 P.M. and 9 P.M., and that they had had the place under surveillance for about a week; that they had no search warrant but that he and his partner entered the front door of the building, which was used as a common entry by the tenants, and together they entered a hall about 25 feet long; that there was a door standing open and they could hear voices of persons coming from the basement and they descended the stairs to the basement about 15 steps and as they stopped on the stairs, they looked into the basement and saw a group of individuals who had policy papers seated around on some benches and chairs; that he was then only a few feet away and looked in the basement and saw the defendant Morris Washington seated at a table and on the table before him were policy papers, policy books and some policy drawings; that defendant Washington was then searched; that on the table where defendant Washington was seated there were policy papers, the take book containing the original sheets and two carbon copies and a play 2099 and No. 5 and the records from ten policy books amounting to $28.90 and twelve policy original top sheets; that from the person of defendant Washington he took $28 in currency, one policy tab and an original policy book, policy tab 209.

Further testimony was given by Officer Griffin with respect to other individuals who were arrested at the same time as defendant Washington, the court having stated that it would hear evidence on the motions to suppress filed in the other cases involving similar charges against other defendants then pending before the court. This was done without objection from either party. The defendants in the other cases, who were convicted and whose appeals were argued along with this appeal in this court, were Joe Simon and Roy Ward. Each of said defendants was charged in a separate information filed in the same court with violation of the same city ordinance on the same day and at the same time and place as was charged in the information filed in this case against Morris Washington. Officer Griffin further testified that when he entered the building at the time in question he had an idea whom he would run into. The court overruled defendant's motion to suppress evidence and then heard the case on its merits.

Police Officer Griffin continuing with his testimony stated that at the time of the arrest of defendant Washington and the others heretofore mentioned, one Edward Andrew was questioned and stated that Washington was the policy manager and that he, Andrew, was turning in his books to Washington. Defendant objected to the testimony concerning the statement made by Andrew but did so after the testimony was given. The witness repeated in detail the testimony he had given on the hearing on the motion to suppress evidence which, it will be recalled, related to the entry by the officer and his partner into the building and into the room where defendant and the others referred to were at the time of the arrest.

Officer Griffin testified at length, describing the game of policy and its operation, stating that it is a means of gambling by betting money on certain numbers that will be drawn in a lottery; that the lottery result ballot is a slip of paper which has three columns of numbers on it, one column having 12 numbers known as the policy column short side; that the center column has six numbers known as the Cyclone and the third column twenty numbers known as the Bungaloo; that on the top of the result ballot is the number known as the class number which identifies the drawing as being held; that the result ballot has been prepared by the operator of the lottery who selects the number of his own choice to print on the result ballot; that there are any number of individuals who play policy; that the policy writers go out on the street and make contacts; that if anyone wished to play policy he would see the policy writer and tell him the numbers he was selecting on which he wanted to make a bet; that the bettor could select various combinations of numbers to bet on; that the policy writer would write in his policy book the numbers selected and the amount of money bet thereon; that City's Exhibits Nos. 1 and 2, which were introduced in evidence, were such policy books.

Officer Griffin further describing the game of policy stated that after the policy writer takes the money for betting and records it the drawings take place at designated hours and the policy writer reports into the meeting where he meets the manager and he turns in his original top sheet and carbon copies of the originals with the money he has accepted as bets; that the top sheet is the original sheet having the original recording of the bet; that he writes those top sheets from his policy book; that he turns into the manager the original top sheet and one carbon copy sheet; that the manager retains as his record the carbon sheet and sends in to the company the original top sheets; that after all of the policy writers make these returns into the manager there is a man known as the pickup man who contacts the different managers and picks up from them the top sheets for a drawing and then the pickup man goes to designated spots where he meets the operator of the policy company or a man working for the operator and the pickup man then gives to the company man the top sheets and the company man, in turn, gives the result ballots to the pickup man; that the pickup man goes back and recontacts the persons with whom he is dealing and gives them the result of the drawing and those result ballots are the numbers that have been drawn.

Officer Griffin was asked: "Q. And assuming that I had made there a certain combination of numbers that appears in the result ballot then I would win some certain amount of money, is that correct?" He gave the following answer: "A. If the numbers you selected to bet on appears in or on the result ballot in the column in which they are designated there as having been paid then you would win."

The Assistant City Counselor questioned Officer Griffin as to whether defendant Washington had made a statement at the time of his arrest. This question was objected to on the ground that any such statement would be inadmissible for the reason that the corpus delicti had not been established. The objection was overruled by the court and Officer Griffin testified that defendant Washington stated that he "had been manager in No. 5 for the Royal Policy Company" and that he had been working for that company as manager for about a year; that he was paid a commission of 5% of the gross take; that defendant Washington explained that that was the amount of the bet which each writer had turned in to him and that he got 5% of that; that his average earnings was about $25 a week; that as to the policy meet at 237 South Jefferson in the basement he had been meeting in that basement for the past two months and previous to that time had been meeting the writers on the street; that the Royal Policy Company had three drawings daily, one at 12 noon, one at 5 P.M. and one at 9 P.M. and two drawings on Sunday, one at 12 noon and one at 8...