People v. Jackson, 83.

• Decision Date: 13 October 1947
• Docket Number: No. 83.,83.
• Citation: 28 N.W.2d 890,318 Mich. 506
• Parties: PEOPLE v. JACKSON.
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court

318 Mich. 506

28 N.W.2d 890

PEOPLE

v.JACKSON.

No. 83.

Supreme Court of Michigan.

Oct. 13, 1947.

Dorothy Jackson was convicted of maintaining a house of ill fame, and she appeals.

Affirmed.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Kalamazoo County; Geo. V. Weimer, judge.

Before the Entire Bench.

Fred Sauer, of Kalamazoo (James B. Stanley, of Kalamazoo, of counsel), for defendant and appellant.

Eugene F. Black, Atty. Gen., Edmund E. Shepherd, Sol. Gen., of Lansing, Daniel J. O'Hara, Asst. Atty., Gen., and W. Wallace Kent, Pros. Atty., of Kalamazoo, for the People.

BUSHNELL, Justice.

Defendant Dorothy Jackson was informed against on March 30, 1946, for maintaining a house of ill fame. When arraigned on April 13, she stood mute and a plea of not guilty was entered.

At the trial on April 15, before the jury was impaneled, defendant's attorney advised the court that after the information was handed him on the 13th he found that Cora Bigelow, who was indorsed thereon as a witness, was not a certain Cora Jones. Claiming that both Cora Jones and Martha Williams, who rented rooms from the fefendant, were material witnesses, he moved the court to order their names indorsed on the information. The discussion between court and counsel developed the fact that neither of these witnesses was produced at the examination. Counsel told the court that, because of the necessity of investigating the identity of the witness, this was the first opportunity he had to ask that Cora Jones be indorsed on the information as a witness for the people.

The court called attention to the fact that the examination was held in the justice court on February 18, the return of the justice had been filed on the 24th, and the information was filed on March 30. Consequently, the names of the people's witnesses had been available to defendant and her counsel since March 30. After an extended colloquy the court declined to require the prosecutor to indorse the names of the two persons on the information.

At the close of the people's case defendant moved to dismiss the complaint and warrant, which motion was denied. Sufficient testimony was introduced by the people to support the allegations of the information, and the trial judge properly denied the motion.

Defendant testified in her own behalf that she had lived on the premises for four years and that she had rented separate rooms to Cora Jones and Martha Williams, for which they paid her by the week. She testified that on the night in question she went to Battle Creek, leaving Cora Jones and Martha Williams in her apartment. She could not remember what time she returned because she had been drinking. After undressing, she put on her robe and went to sleep on a studio couch in the living room and was awakened by the police officers, who arrested her. She disclaimed renting the rooms for immoral purposes. After a jury verdict of guilty, defendant was sentenced.

Defendant was granted leave to appeal and argues that the failure of the prosecutor to call Cora Jones and Martha Williams, alleged prostitutes and material witnesses, constituted an infringement of her rights under article 6 of Amendments to the Constitution of the United States and section 19, article 2 of the Michigan Constitution (1908). She also insists that the refusal of the trial judge to require the prosecutor to indorse the names of these material witnesses on the information is reversible error under the provisions...