People v. Anderson

• Decision Date: 12 April 1966
• Docket Number: No. 3,No. 117,117,3
• Citation: 2 Mich.App. 718,141 N.W.2d 353
• Parties: PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. James Ivan ANDERSON, Defendant-Appellant. Cal
• Court: Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US

Page 353

141 N.W.2d 353

2 Mich.App. 718

PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. James Ivan ANDERSON, Defendant-Appellant.

Cal. No. 117.

Court of Appeals of Michigan, Division No. 3.

April 12, 1966.

Hartwig, Crow & Jones, by F. A. Jones, Benton Harbor, for appellant.

Frank J. Kelley, Atty. Gen., Robert A. Derengoski, Sol. Gen., Lansing, John T. Hammond, Pros. Atty., Berrien County, St. Joseph, for appellee.

Before WATTS, P.J., and FITZGERALD and HOLBROOK, JJ.

WATTS, Judge.

Defendant James Ivan Anderson was convicted of statutory rape and sentenced to 3 years probation and a fine. Motion to set aside conviction and request for a new trial was denied, and defendant appeals. The case was transferred to the Court of Appeals on October 14, 1964.

Defendant was convicted under C.L.S.1961, § 750.520 (Stat.Ann.1954 Rev. § 28.788) of rape upon a 13-year old girl. She testified at the examination before a municipal judge that she had sexual intercourse with the defendant in Berrien county on the day alleged in the complaint. The examining judge found probable cause of the offense having been committed by the defendant on June 8, 1964, and held the defendant or trial before the circuit court.

In the circuit court trial, the complainant testified that the defendant did not have sexual intercourse with her on June 8, 1964. The assistant prosecuting attorney questioned the complainant in detail relative to the testimony she gave at the examination. The complaining witness testified that she did not tell the truth at the examination and repeated her testimony that she did not have sexual intercourse with the defendant on June 8, 1964.

The defendant in the circuit court trial denied that he had sexual intercourse with the complainant on the alleged date.

The court instructed the jury in part as follows:

The Court: 'Now, the people claim that they have proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did have sexual relations with this girl on the date in question, at Benton township in Berrien county, Michigan. The defendant denies that he had sexual relations with her on that date. The prosecuting witness testified that she did not have sexual relations with him on that date. She also testified that on previous occasions and under oath she testified that she did have sexual relations with him on that date, so that becomes the sole question for you to determine in this case. Did the defendant have sexual relations with the prosecuting witness on the day in question?'

Under the instructions of the court, the jury was permitted to convict the defendant upon the testimony of the complainant taken before the examining judge. At the trial, the only two witnesses to the alleged offense both denied emphatically that the complainant had sexual intercourse with the defendant on the alleged date.

The issue involved in the instant case is: Did the trial court err in refusing to grant a motion for directed verdict of acquittal where there was no evidence offered that defendant had sexual intercourse on the date charged in the complaint for statutory rape and the only testimony of defendant's guilt was the testimony of the complaining witness given at the preliminary hearing, the truth of which she denied when asked at the trial if she recalled her previous testimony?

Justice GRANT, writing the opinion of the Court in People v. Miner (1904), 138 Mich. 290, 292, 101 N.W. 536, said:

'This same question was before us in the case of People v. Elco, 131 Mich. (519), 523, 91 N.W. 755, 94 N.W. 1069, in which the majority of the court held that, where a witness whom the people were bound to produce had made prior statements contradictory to those made upon the trial, such prior statements could be introduced to impeach her testimony. The respondent was entitled to have the witnesses against him produced in open court. The people could not introduce the prosecutrix's deposition taken upon the examination,...