State v. Hatfield
| Decision Date | 05 April 1915 |
| Citation | 87 N.J.L. 124,93 A. 677 |
| Parties | STATE v. HATFIELD. |
| Court | New Jersey Supreme Court |
Certiorari to Second Criminal Court of Newark.
Charles Hatfield was convicted of an offense, and he brings certiorari. Conviction set aside.
Argued November Term, 1914, before SWAYZE, PARKER, and KALISCH, JJ.
Aquila N. Venino and Edwards T. Casebolt, both of Newark, for prosecutor. Frederick F. Guild, of Newark, for the State.
The prosecutor was convicted in the second criminal court of Newark under section 1 of an act entitled "An act concerning disorderly persons (Revision of 1898)." C. S. p. 1926. This section, among other things, provides:
"And all persons who shall use, or pretend to use, or have any skill in physiognomy, palmistry, or like crafty science, or who shall pretend to tell destinies or fortunes * * * shall be deemed and adjudged to be disorderly persons."
The complaint on which the prosecutor was convicted charged him as follows:
"The said Charles Hatfield did use or pretend to use or have skill in phyiognomy, palmistry or like crafty science, and did pretend to tell destinies, or fortunes, contrary to the statute in such case made and provided."
The warrant issued on the complaint and the record of conviction and judgment adopt the precise language used in charging the offense set out in the complaint, as above recited. What the prosecutor did, as appears from the record before us, was to cast a horoscope for the complaining witness, at her request, with explanatory remarks and advice, and made some forecasts, which latter act properly comes within the telling of destinies. For the prosecutor it is argued that the complaint is fatally defective because it charges him with several distinct crimes in a single complaint.
It is to be observed that a person may pretend to use and use palmistry and physiognomy to tell fortunes and destinies, or he may use only one of the means, or neither, and if he does use all or any one or neither, but pretends to tell fortunes and destinies, he will be deemed and adjudged a disorderly person. As they all appear to be cognate offenses, care must be taken not to confuse the several specifications of the same offense, with cases where the offenses are in their nature distinct, or where the offenses were committed on different dates. This is best stated as to the former class of cases by the following example: Thus, if the prosecutor had, at the time when the complaining witness applied to him, not only cast her horoscope, but had used palmistry and physiognomy and told her fortune and destiny, it would, under the statute, have made him amenable to be adjudged a disorderly person, subject to a single penalty therefor. The legal situation is similar to that which exists in a case where the offense charged is a public nuisance. The common-law form of an indictment for keeping and maintaining a disorderly house is a pertinent illustration. Such an indictment charges tippling, whoring, fighting, gaming, harboring thieves, etc., in a single count Proof of the habitual practice of any one of these specifications will be sufficient to sustain a charge of...
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