People v. Hedge

• Decision Date: 21 October 1918
• Docket Number: No. 12115.,12115.
• Parties: PEOPLE v. HEDGE.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

284 Ill. 513

120 N.E. 494

PEOPLE

v.HEDGE.

No. 12115.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Oct. 21, 1918.

Error to Criminal Court, Cook County; Joseph Sabath, Judge.

Charles Hedge was convicted of larceny, and brings error. Reversed and remanded.

Charles C. Williams and Thomas E. Swanson, both of Chicago, for plaintiff in error.

Edward J. Brundage, Atty. Gen., and Maclay Hoyne.

State's Atty., and Edward C. Fitch, both of Chicago (Edward E. Wilson and Edward A. Prindiville, both of Chicago, of counsel), for the People.

DUNN, J.

Charles Hedge was convicted of larceny on an indictment charging him with larceny and receiving stolen goods, and has sued out a writ of error to reverse the judgment on the grounds that it is not sustained by the evidence and that the court erred in the admission of evidence and in instructing the jury.

The plaintiff in error was for several years an adjuster or investigator for insurance companies and specialized in the recovery of stolen automobiles. On November 17, 1916, a Haynes automobile belonging to Samuel H. Regensberg was stolen in the city of Chicago by Norman Dietz and Edward Thacker, and on November 23d it was returned to Regensberg by Hedge, who received from the insurance company $100 for its recovery. Hedge testified that the first information he had about the car being stolen was from the thief, Norman Dietz, who asked Hedge if he was looking for a Haynes car. Hedge questioned Dietz and learned that the car came from a person on Grand boulevard. The police had been notified of the theft of the car, and upon investigation Hedge learned the owner's name and entered into negotiations with him for the recovery of the car. When these were completed, Hedge arranged with Dietz to locate the car and meet him the next day. Hedge went to the appointed place the next day. The car was standing on the corner. He drove it downtown, delivered it to Regensberg, received the $100, and gave $75 to Dietz. He testified that Dietz never told him that he had stolen the car and he did not know that Dietz had anything to do with stealing it; that Dietz was a ‘stool pigeon,’ who gave him information and used to come to his office wanting to know what was missing and would look over Hedge's filed and descriptions of cars; that Hedge had all the stool pigeons he could get, but Dietz was the only one he would actually see, and that nobody ever told him that Dietz was an automobile thief; that he first saw Dietz in December, 1915, and talked with him about a stolen car in regard to which Hedge had been employed by an adjustment company; and that afterward he got information from Dietz in several cases which helped in the recovery of stolen cars, for which he paid Dietz.

Dietz was a young man about 20 years old when Hedge became acquainted with him. who then was or soon became an automobile thief. In the first few months of their acquaintance he gave Hedge information in regard to stolen automobiles which helped Hedge in several cases to recover the automobiles, and Hedge paid him for the information. He testified that in May, 1916, Hedge told him that if Dietz could get cars Hedge could put them away and they could get the rewards for them, and the next day took him in his automobile to Hillside, to the roadhouse of Frank Russo, and introduced him to Russo as a friend of Hedge; that soon after Dietz made an arrangement with James Sloan, another young automobile thief about 17 years old, to assist in stealing and concealing automobiles, and in pursuance of that arrangement several automobiles were stolen, taken to Russo's and left there, and Hedge afterward paid Dietz for them different sums of money. Sloan testified to the arrangement with Dietz and to the stealing of cars and taking them to Russo's and the payment of money to him by Dietz. He also testified that he went to Hedge's office with Dietz, and Hedge told him to go ahead and get the machines and bring them out to Russo's place. Russo denied that Hedge ever made any arrangement to store automobiles in his garage. Dietz testified that Hedge did not know about the cars Dietz was going to steal; that Dietz told nobody, but simply went out and got the cars; that Hedge told Dietz the first time they met that Dietz must never come to Hedge with anything he personally had anything to do with-never to steal a car and then come to Hedge and try to get some of the reward.

If the understanding between Hedge and Dietz was that Dietz should steal cars and bring them to Russo's place and that Hedge should return the cars to the owners and collect the rewards for their recovery, then Hedge was guilty of larceny as well as Dietz. The Criminal Code (Hurd's Rev. St. 1917, c. 38, § 274) § 2, provides that whoever, not being present aiding, abetting, or assisting, has advised, encouraged, aided, or abetted the perpetration of a crime, shall be considered as principal and may be indicted and punished as such. One who has advised and encouraged the...