State v. Lamb, 47112.

• Citation: 30 N.W.2d 734,239 Iowa 176
• Decision Date: 10 February 1948
• Docket Number: No. 47112.,47112.
• Parties: STATE v. LAMB.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Iowa

239 Iowa 176
30 N.W.2d 734

STATE
v.
LAMB.

No. 47112.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Feb. 10, 1948.

Appeal from District Court, Jasper County; Frank M. Bechly, Judge.

From order of the trial court sustaining defendant's motion to quash indictment the State appeals.

Reversed.

[30 N.W.2d 735]

Robert L. Larson, Atty. Gen., Don Hise, First Asst. Atty. Gen., and J. N. Diehl, Co. Atty., of Newton, for appellant.

Hammer & Guessford, of Newton, for appellee.

HAYS, Justice.

Defendant Gerald Lamb was indicted by the Grand Jury of Jasper County, Iowa, for the crime of bootlegging in violation of Section 125.7, Code 1946. April 21, 1947 defendant, appearing in person and by his attorneys, entered a plea of not guilty. May 28, 1947, defendant filed his ‘motion to quash indictment and to dismiss case.’ On said date the motion to quash was sustained. On June 2, 1947, the trial court ordered that the defendant be held under the same bail bond and the cause submitted to the next Grand Jury. The State appeals from above orders. Defendant has not filed a brief and argument on this appeal.

Appellant assigns but one error which is: ‘The trial court erred in granting the motion to set aside the indictment charging bootlegging, on any of the grounds as stated in defendant's motion to dismiss the indictment and dismiss the case.’ As stated by appellant in its brief, the sole question raised on this appeal is: May a trial court set aside an indictment that charges a crime because neither the minutes attached to the indictment nor an agreed statement of facts, used solely in connection with a motion to quash the indictment, are sufficient to warrant a conviction of the defendant?

At the outset, we desire to say that the proceedings and particularly the procedure adopted by the parties concerned, are not to be commended or encouraged.

The indictment was regular in form. Attached to the indictment were the signed statements of four witnesses. One is the police officer to whom a bottle of liquor was given by the county attorney who received it from one Art Risse. The other witnesses, including Risse, tell about the same story. The three called defendant, a taxi driver, to take them to a club near Newton. They asked the driver, defendant, to get them some liquor which he did. He delivered it to them and they paid him for it. They kept the bottle of liquor until latter in the evening when Risse produced it at the police station. Defendant when arraigned entered a plea of not guilty and the case was...