State v. Lund

• Decision Date: 20 March 1930
• Docket Number: 4950
• Citation: 286 P. 960,75 Utah 559
• Court: Utah Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE v. LUND

286 P. 960

75 Utah 559

STATE v. LUND

No. 4950

Supreme Court of Utah

March 20, 1930

Appeal from District Court, Third District, Salt Lake County; O. E McConkie, Judge.

Rex Lund was convicted of receiving money from the proceeds of the earnings of a woman engaged in prostitution, and he appeals.

REVERSED AND REMANDED.

R Verne McCullough and N. E. Callister, both of Salt Lake City for appellant.

George P. Parker, Attorney General, and L. A. Miner, Assistant Attorney General, for the State.

ELIAS HANSEN, J. CHERRY, C. J., and STRAUP, EPHRAIM, HANSON, and FOLLAND, JJ., concur.

OPINION

ELIAS HANSEN, J.

The trial of this action in the court below resulted in the jury rendering a verdict finding "the defendant, Rex Lund, guilty of receiving money from the proceeds of the earnings of a woman engaged in prostitution as charged in the information." Defendant was sentenced to serve an indeterminate term in the state prison. He appeals.

The charging part of the information filed against the defendant reads as follows:

"That the said Rex Lund on the 10th day of March, A. D. 1929, at the County of Salt Lake, State of Utah, did wilfully, unlawfully, knowingly, and feloniously accept and receive from one, May Goodmansen, the sum of $ 4.00, said sum being the earnings of her, the said May Goodmansen, received by her while engaged in prostitution, and the said Rex Lund then and there, knowing that said sum was the earnings of the said May Goodmansen while so engaged as aforesaid. Contrary to the provisions of the statute of the state aforesaid in such case made and provided and against the peace and dignity of the State of Utah."

The defendant in the trial court assailed the sufficiency of the information to state a public offense by a demurrer, by objection to the introduction of evidence, and by a motion in arrest of judgment. The defendant claims that the information is fatally defective, in that it fails to allege that he accepted or received the $ 4 "without consideration." The demurrer and the objection to the introduction of evidence were overruled, and the motion in arrest of judgment was denied. Such rulings are assigned as errors.

The crime attempted to be charged in the information is defined by Comp. Laws Utah 1917, § 8097, as follows:

"Any person who shall knowingly accept, receive, levy, or appropriate any money or other valuable thing, without consideration, from the proceeds of the earnings of any woman engaged in prostitution, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and on conviction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment for a period of not less than two nor more than twenty years. Any such acceptance, receipt, levy, or appropriation of such money or valuable thing shall, upon any proceeding or trial for violation of this section, be presumptive evidence of lack of consideration; any person who shall procure a female person for the purpose of prostitution for another male person by either personal solicitation, messenger, telephone call, or other means, or who shall send or direct any female person to the sleeping apartment or lodging room of any male person, or to any other place for the purpose of prostitution, whether for hire or for a commission of the proceeds of the prostitution, or for any other consideration of value, from either the man for whom such female was procured, sent, or directed, or from the female so procured, sent, or directed, whether collected at the time or not; every messenger, every hotel or rooming house proprietor, clerk, or other employee of such place, and every chauffeur or hack driver, or any other person, who by any means sends, directs, takes, or conveys any female person to any room or other place for the purpose of prostitution with or for another male person, or any person, who keeps a list of female persons to call or to be called for the purpose of prostitution, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and on conviction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than two nor more than ten years. Any cafe, restaurant, or coffee house proprietor, manager, waiter, or other employee having full or temporary charge of such place, or any proprietor, manager, or other person having charge of any road house or assignation house, or any other person who knowingly permits prostitutes to solicit patronage for prostitution in their place of business, or any place over which such person has control, or aids or abets such prostitutes in so soliciting or securing patronage for prostitution in any place or in any manner whatsoever; and every hotel, rooming house, lodging house, or boarding house keeper, proprietor, or manager, or other person having charge of such place, or any other person who knowingly rents any of the rooms of such a place, or any other room or rooms of any place for the purpose of prostitution, or knowingly permits any of such rooms or any other room or rooms over which they have control to be used for the purpose of prostitution, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and on conviction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment for a period of not less than one nor more than five years; provided, that, in the case of the procuring of a female for the purpose of prostitution, such female being under the age of twenty-one years at the time of procurement, and such female being procured, sent, or directed by any of the persons or by any of the methods in this section...