State v. Boyd

• Decision Date: 12 April 1904
• Citation: 84 S.W. 191,108 Mo. App. 518
• Parties: STATE v. BOYD.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

84 S.W. 191

108 Mo. App. 518

STATE v. BOYD.

St. Louis Court of Appeals. Missouri.

April 12, 1904.

On Rehearing, December 13, 1904.

MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS — POLICE OFFICER — ARREST WITHOUT WARRANT — SUPPRESSION OF BAWDYHOUSE — INDICTMENTS — DUPLICITY.

1. Under Rev. St. 1899, § 6212, providing that police officers of the city of St. Louis shall preserve the public peace, prevent crime, and arrest offenders, and section 6232, declaring them both state and city officers, such officers may, and must when they know of the commission of a crime, make arrests without warrants for past misdemeanors not committed in their presence and view.

2. An indictment charging a police captain with omitting to prevent the maintaining of bawdyhouses in his district, with the omission to arrest certain designated keepers of different bawdyhouses, and with the omission to arrest the inmates and habitués of the houses as vagrants, was not bad for duplicity, but charged but one offense, the gravamen of which was that defendant unlawfully permitted houses of ill fame to be set up and maintained within his district; and the allegations of failure to arrest the offenders named were merely amplifications of the offense charged.

3. Under Rev. St. 1899, § 2197, making the setting up of a bawdyhouse a misdemeanor; section 6232, declaring police officers of the city of St. Louis state and city officers; and section 6212, making it their duty to prevent crime and arrest offenders — it is the duty of a captain of police of the city of St. Louis, for the omission to perform which he is punishable by indictment, to suppress bawdyhouses which he knows have been set up and are being maintained in his district.

Reyburn, J., dissenting.

Appeal from St. Louis Court of Criminal Correction; Hiram N. Moore, Judge.

Samuel J. Boyd was indicted for negligence in office as captain of police. A demurrer to the indictment was sustained, and the state appeals. Reversed, and certified to the Supreme Court.

C. P. Williams, for the State. T. J. Rowe, S. S. Bass, and F. W. Lehman, for respondent.

BLAND, P. J.

Omitting caption, the indictment is as follows: "The grand jurors of the state of Missouri, within and for the body of the city of St. Louis, now here in court duly impaneled, sworn, and charged, upon their oath present that at the city of St. Louis aforesaid, and on the fifteenth day of February in the year one thousand and nine hundred and three (and for a long time prior thereto), one Samuel J. Boyd was a public officer and a person holding a trust and appointment, within and for the city of St. Louis and the state of Missouri, to wit, a member of the metropolitan police force and department of the said city of St. Louis, of the grade and designation of captain of police, duly appointed, enrolled, and employed by the board of police commissioners of said city, assigned and detailed to, and the principal officer of police and in command of, that portion of territory of said city known and designated, for the purpose of police government, and duly established by the said board of police commissioners of said city, as the Fourth Police District of said city, and that the said Samuel J. Boyd was then and there (and for a long time had been), by virtue of the laws of the state of Missouri, a state officer. That he, the said Samuel J. Boyd, was then and there (and for a long time prior thereto had been) duly appointed and designated as such captain of police by the said board of police commissioners of said city, under and by virtue of the laws of the state of Missouri, and was then and there (and for a long time prior thereto had been) duly commissioned, sworn, assigned, and acting as such captain of police, and in command, control, supervision, and direction, for the purposes of police government, and to enable the said board of police commissioners to perform the duties imposed upon them by law, of the said Fourth Police District of said city. That under and by virtue of the laws of the state of Missouri it was the official duty of the said board of police commissioners of said city, and of every member of the said police force and department of said city appointed, enrolled, and employed as such by the said board of police commissioners, and the official duty of him, the said Samuel J. Boyd, as such member of said police force and department, and as such captain of police, and as such public officer, and as such state officer, at all times of the day and night, within the boundaries of said city, to preserve the public peace, to prevent crime and arrest offenders, to prevent and remove nuisances on all streets and highways and other places, and to see that all laws of the state of Missouri relating to vagrants and disorderly persons were enforced. That he, the said Samuel J. Boyd, as such captain of police, then and there (and for a long time prior thereto) had under his command and subject to his order numerous sergeants and patrolmen of police, members of the said police force and department, and was vested with adequate power and authority, as such captain of police in command of said Fourth Police District, and as such public and state officer, for the proper and efficient performance of the duty aforesaid. That at the said city of St. Louis, and on the said fifteenth day of February, in the year one thousand nine hundred and three (and for a long time prior thereto), and within the territory so known and designated as the said Fourth Police District of said city, so commanded by him, the said Samuel J. Boyd, as captain of police as aforesaid, there were, and had been for a long time, continuously, open, and notoriously set up, kept, and maintained certain common bawdyhouses and brothels, and that then and there, and for a long time prior thereto, unlawful and disorderly conduct and practices were committed in each and all of said houses, and divers common prostitutes and bawds, vagrants, and disorderly persons resorted to and resided in said houses for the purposes of common prostitution and bawdry, and solicited men for the purpose of sexual intercourse therefrom and in front thereof, which said common bawdyhouses and brothels were so set up, kept, and maintained in said Fourth Police District in certain buildings situated upon certain streets and highways of said city, known and designated as North Twelfth street, North High street, Linden street, and Gay street, which said buildings were known and designated respectively by the following street numbers, to wit: The building designated as number 703 North Twelfth street, the building designated as number 705 North Twelfth street, the building designated as number 707 North Twelfth street, the building designated as number 709 North Twelfth street, the building designated as number 711 North Twelfth street, the building designated as number 713 North Twelfth street, the building designated as number 721 North Twelfth street, the building designated as number 726 North Twelfth street, the building designated as number 821 North Twelfth street, the building designated as number 1205 Linden, the buildings designated as numbers 1208 and 1210 Linden street, the building designated as number 1215 Linden street, the building designated as number 1235 Linden street, the building designated as number 721 North High street — wherein the said common bawdyhouses and brothels were then and there (and for a long time had been) so continuously, openly, and notoriously set up, kept, and maintained respectively by Fannie Adams, Rose Brown, Birdie Hill (alias Hall), Becky Weinstein, Lena Cohen (alias Smith), Ida Smith, May Smith, Annie Brown, Becky Schwartz, Martha Sharp, Annie Smith, R. Johnson, Lillie Smith, and May Connor. That it was the official duty as aforesaid of the said Samuel J. Boyd, as captain of police as aforesaid, in command of said Fourth Police District as aforesaid, and as such public officer and state officer as aforesaid, to arrest and cause to be arrested the said Fannie Adams, Rose Brown, Birdie Hill (alias Hall), Becky Weinstein, Lena Cohen (alias Smith), Ida Smith, May Smith, Annie Brown, Becky Schwartz, Martha Sharp, Annie Smith, R. Johnson, Lillie Smith, and May Connor for violation of the law, and for crime, in so setting up, keeping, and maintaining said common bawdyhouses and brothels as aforesaid in said city of St. Louis, that they might be dealt with according to law, and to prevent said violation of law and crime, and to prevent and remove such common bawdyhouses and brothels as common nuisances, and to arrest and cause to be arrested said common prostitutes, bawds, and disorderly persons as vagrants. That nevertheless the said Samuel J. Boyd, being such captain of police as aforesaid, and commanding said Fourth Police District as aforesaid, and being such public officer and state officer as aforesaid, and then and there (and for a long time prior thereto) well knowing the premises aforesaid, did then and there, unlawfully and willfully, wholly neglect and omit to perform his said official duty as aforesaid, and then and there continuously did unlawfully and willfully wholly neglect and omit to...