State v. Grace

• Decision Date: 16 April 1973
• Citation: 493 S.W.2d 474
• Parties: STATE of Tennessee, Petitioner, v. Clifford L. GRACE, Respondent.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

Page 474

493 S.W.2d 474

STATE of Tennessee, Petitioner, v. Clifford L. GRACE, Respondent.

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

April 16, 1973.

David M. Pack, Atty. Gen., C. Hayes Cooney, Asst. Atty. Gen., Nashville, for petitioner.

William C. Wilson, Nashville, for respondent.

OPINION

CHATTIN, Justice.

Respondent was convicted of passing a worthless check in the amount of $65.00 and sentenced to eleven months and twenty-nine days imprisonment.

The Court of Criminal Appeals reversed and remanded the case on the ground the evidence preponderated against the verdict of the jury. We granted certiorari.

William Adcock, an employee of the Westgate Food Town Market, testified on the evening of September 4, 1970, a man came to his check-out counter and asked him to cash a personal check payable to the Market in the amount of $65.00 and signed 'Clifford L. Grace.' He requested the man place his telephone number and address on the back of the check and gave him the $65.00.

Adcock identified the check. After the check was returned unpaid, he went to the Metro Police Department and looked at mug shots and identified Grace from a group of pictures.

Adock also identified Grace in the General Sessions Court on October 16, 1970. He again identified him at the trial. He testified Grace looked the same as he did at the Market when he cashed the check, except he had grown a beard.

Ernest Pyle, a Metro Police Detective, testified Adcock, in his presence at the police station, identified Grace from a collection of eight or ten photographs. He testified other wortheless checks had come to his attention signed 'Clifford Grace' and this was the first case anyone had attempted to make against him.

James Seigenthaler, a special investigator for the Commerce Union Bank on which the check was drawn, testified the check was written on an account bearing the number of an account listed to Claudia Jackson; and that no one but Claudia Jackson was authorized to draw on that account.

Harold Hutchison, Manager of the Westgate Food Market, testified the check was never paid. He, also, testified he and Adocock appeared in the General Sessions Court in connection with the case and Adcock identified Grace from a large group of people in the courtroom.

Grace testified on October 16, 1970, he appeared with his Attorney, Charles Brown, at the courthouse and he, Brown, Adcock and Hutchison discussed the check; that Adcock could not identify him; and that it was agreed the case would not be prosecuted and he left. He stated he was later arrested on a warrant for failure to appear in court and was then indicted.

He stated he was arrested in September, 1970, on this and about nineteen other bad check cases.

Grace and other witnesses testified in regard to an alibi. The Court of Criminal Appeals considered that testimony as unpersuasive. Since this testimony did not affect the Court of Criminal Appeals' decision, it is unnecessary to restate it.

Charles Brown, an Attorney, testified in behalf of Grace. His testimony was in part as follows:

'Well, he came by the office and had a friend with him. I didn't recognize him, to be perfectly frank with you, but of the way he has let his hair grow and beard grow, and so we came on over to the court and they called the case and we announced that we was present, and of course then they take their recess, and we had some discussion with the Attorney General down there at the time, I did. I discussed it with him and he denied that he wrote the check. He just emphatically denied it was his check, and we had other discussions, and the fact is we came outside the courtroom and I believe it was that man sitting there. It was a small bald-headed man, and discussed it, and this man admitted that this is not the same fellow that signed the check, or someone did, and so we went back in and talked it over with the Attorney General and the Attorney General agreed to take a nolle in the case. So. I left. That was it.'

On cross examination, evidently referring to either Hutchison or Adock, he said during the discussion it was said: 'We'll drop it if he'll pay it off, and I said I can't advise him to pay it off. He says he did not write it.'

Hutchison was recalled to rebut the testimony of Brown. Hutchison was asked whether he 'ever made any offer to accept restitution' with Brown in this case. His reply was that he did not remember any such conversation and did not have the authority to make such an offer of restitution.

He, also, stated he did not...