People v. Singer

• Decision Date: 28 June 1963
• Docket Number: Cr. 8466
• Citation: 32 Cal.Rptr. 701,217 Cal.App.2d 743
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Arthur Lioyd SINGER, Defendant and Appellant.

Page 701

32 Cal.Rptr. 701

217 Cal.App.2d 743

The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Arthur Lioyd SINGER, Defendant and Appellant.

Cr. 8466.

District Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 2, California.

June 28, 1963.

Rehearing Denied July 23, 1963.

Hearing Denied Aug. 20, 1963.

Joseph W. Fairfield and Ethelyn F. Black, Los Angeles, for appellant.

Stanley Mosk, Atty. Gen., William E. James, Asst. Atty. Gen., Calvin W. Torrance, Deputy Atty. Gen., for respondent.

ASHBURN, Justice.

Convicted of two counts of abortion (Pen. Code § 274) committed March 10, 1961 upon Marilyn Carrico and Judy Breazeale, respectively, defendant appeals from the judgment and attempts to appeal from certain orders hereinafter mentioned. His co-defendant Lynne Holzman pleaded guilty and testified for the prosecution.

Viewing the evidence most favorably to respondents, as we must (People v. Daugherty, 40 Cal.2d 876, 885, 256 P.2d 911; People v. Sweeney, 55 Cal.2d 27, 33, 9 Cal.Rptr. 793, 357 P.2d 1049), the story is as follows.

Miss Marilyn Carrico, suspecting herself to be pregnant because she had missed a period, consulted Dr. Jack Weintraub who gave her an internal examination and talked with her, as a result of which she believed herself pregnant. By telephone she arranged a meeting with appellant's co-defendant Lynne Holzman, who was a stranger to her.

Having had no menstrual period for two months Miss Judy Breazeale thought herself pregnant and visited Dr. John Witt in late January or early February, 1961; told him she had missed her period but had had the flu and thought it due to that. The doctor merely gave her some shots. She met Mrs. Holzman at the Witt office where the latter worked as receptionist.

Appellant's opening brief says that these two unmarried women (Marilyn and Judy) 'apprehensive of their condition desired to abort their embarrassment' and 'separately they engaged the services of Lynne Holzman for this purpose'; that she said 'that she would be of help for a price.' 'There is evidence in the record that Mrs. Holzman advised Miss Carrico and Miss Breazeale that she would have them aborted and that the price would be $575.00.' Pursuant to previous arrangement each of the two women arrived at the corner of Wilshire and LaBrea in Los Angeles on the evening of March 10, 1961, about 6:00 p. m. Soon Mrs. Holzman arrived in an automobile and took both of them to a restaurant for dinner. She had made an arrangement with Dr. Singer to bring them to his office and this she did after dinner. Judy had $275 and Marilyn $300 and they gave the money to defendant Holzman before they reached Dr. Singer's office. Mrs. Holzman handed it to him as soon as they entered the office and he gave her $60 for bringing the girls to him. Both were introduced when they entered.

Judy was taken into a back room while the other women remained in the reception room. She there saw an examining table and some instruments. Appellant asked how many periods she had missed and was told three. Appellant had her undress and placed her on the table. She could not see what he was doing but felt something cold, like metal in her private parts. Soon she had some cramps and felt slight pain. Appellant appeared to be working in the area of her private parts. He gave her a roll of gauze and told her to unwrap it, saying that he was going to insert it in her. She then had the sensation of having something inside her. She dressed and wore a sanitary napkin when she left the room. Appellant had given her some pills and said to take one that night and one the next day. When she left appellant's office she was in a great deal of pain and felt something inside her private parts. In all this took one-half hour.

Then Marilyn went to the back room. Appellant asked if she was pregnant and she said yes. In response to another inquiry she said that her doctor believed her to be so. (Dr. Weintraub also testified to that effect.) She then disrobed and got onto the table. Appellant said he was going to insert gauze in her. She felt something in the area of her private parts and felt pain in them. Though she could not see what he was doing, defendant appeared to be working on her. When she told appellant it hurt, he said, 'What did you expect?' She put on a sanitary napkin, dressed and returned to the reception room. There appellant gave her his card, handed a piece of paper to Mrs. Holzman and said it was a prescription which she should have filled and that she should give Marilyn half; also if Marilyn needed him she should call in the morning. Mrs. Holzman asked appellant how long Marilyn and Judy should leave the tube in and he said to leave it for 48 hours and then take it out.

As the women started to leave the office, Police Officers Mitchell, Bates and Hill appeared and arrested Dr. Singer and Mrs. Holzman.

On the next morning Marilyn went to Dr. Weintraub again and thence to San Vicente Hospital near LaBrea where she remained for five to seven days.

On the second day she was there appellant came to see her and asked how she felt. He put an envelope on a tray near her bed; she asked what it was and he said money. 'What for?' 'Well, because if you are not in town when this comes to trial it will not come to trial without a witness.' 'I can't take it.' 'Well then, consider it as payment toward your doctor bill, your hospital bill.' After appellant left Marilyn opened the envelope and saw that it contained $450. She later turned it over to Officer Mitchell.

After she entered the hospital Dr. Weintraub found a gauze pack in her vagina and a urinary catheter placed in her cervix, the mouth of the womb. He removed both pack and catheter. On March 14 he performed a dilation and curettement on the patient, a procedure whereby the mouth of the womb is opened and the abnormal contents of the uterus are emptied; this he did because the patient was 'septic infective' and 'there was a possibility of some retention of tissue.' His diagnosis, etc. was 'incomplete AB' meaning an incomplete state of abortion. The patient had continued bleeding. '[T]he fact that the catheter was inserted in all likelihood induced the state of abortion.' Dr. Weintraub reported the matter to the police department and they took possession of the catheter.

Judy Breazeale felt something inside her private parts after she left appellant's office; she never saw it but she had felt something being done to her. On the next Tuesday she went to a hospital in Glendale where Dr. Erickson made a pelvic examination and found the uterus 'enlarged approximately two and one half months size of gestation or pregnancy.' In the vaginal vault he found 'a large one-inch roll of gauze, bloody, stained dark brown.' He also discovered the tip of a rubber tube protruding from the 'cervical os.' 'I gripped this with a tenaculum and removed it, and out came a total length rubber catheter.' It was turned over to the police. Dr. Erickson expressed the opinion that Judy was in a state of incomplete abortion or miscarriage and that the catheter could contribute toward the miscarriage. 'Q Do you know of any other medical reason to place a catheter inside of a pregnant uterus? A I know of none.'

After her release from the hospital, Judy received a telephone call from a person who identified himself as the appellant; in answer to an inquiry she said she was fine and was then asked how much it would be worth to her to leave town for a while. She said she could not leave town, was busy and could not talk, and thus ended the conversation.

Sgt. F. L. Mitchell of the Los Angeles police was one of the investigating and arresting officers. He had had previous long experience on the abortion detail. He, with Lt. Brown, Sgt. Hill and Officer Bates, having been previously apprised of what was going to happen, were stationed at an observation point when the three women arrived separately at Wilshire and LaBrea. This was about 6:00 p. m. Defendant Holzman arrived in an automobile, and motioned the others to the end of the building as she drove around to the back. There they had a conversation in the car, Mrs. Holzman and Marilyn went to a telephone booth where the former made a telephone call, stopping and talking with Marilyn from time to time. The three women then drove to a restaurant on West Pico Street and had dinner. The police followed them to that spot and thence to 10743 LaBrea Avenue, an office having Dr. Singer's name on the door; they entered at 8:00 p. m. The police waited outside until 9:05 when appellant and the three women appeared in the doorway and the women got into Mrs. Holzman's car. Sgt. Mitchell and Lt. Brown pushed their way into appellant's office and Sgt. Hill and Officer Bates conversed with the women at the Holzman automobile. Upon inquiry appellant identified himself as Dr. Singer; Mitchell identified himself and placed the doctor under arrest. Sgt. Mitchell and appellant went to a rear room which had an examining table with stirrup attachments and into another room where two sterilizers were in operation. Asked what he had done to the two girls who had just left the office appellant said he had put a rubber tube in the uterus but 'had not aborted them.' "Well, you put the tubes in the uterus of these girls to cause a miscarriage eventually, didn't you?' And he stated, 'Yes. But,' he said, 'they have not miscarried as yet, they are still pregnant." The officer saw in one of the sterilizers two red rubber catheter tubes similar to those later received in evidence. There was also in the sterilizer a piece of heavy gauge wire; asked if he had used it as an insert so he could guide the catheter appellant said yes. Appellant was required to empty his pockets and thus produced a large roll of bills amounting to $1,489 by actual count made by the police. He said he had received $300 from one of the girls and $250 from the other and that those sums were part of the...