State v. Spriggs
| Decision Date | 08 November 1929 |
| Docket Number | No. 1a.,1a. |
| Citation | 147 A. 641 |
| Parties | STATE v. SPRIGGS. |
| Court | New Jersey Supreme Court |
Error to Court of Quarter Sessions, Atlantic County.
Percy Spriggs was convicted of committing act of indecency, and he brings error. Affirmed.
Argued May term, 1929, before GUMMERE, C. J., and KALISCH and CAMPBELL, JJ.
Walter Comer, of Atlantic City, for plaintiff in error.
Louis A. Repetto, Prosecutor of the Pleas, of Atlantic City, for the State.
The grand jury of Atlantic county returned two indictments against Percy Spriggs, the defendant below and the present appellant, one of which charged that he did commit a notorious act of public indecency in and upon one David Marks by taking the private parts of the said David Marks in the mouth of the said Spriggs, and which act was grossly scandalous, and tended to debauch the morals and manners of the people. The other indictment charged a similar offense committed upon the person of one Robert Hasson. Marks and Hasson were each of them boys about fifteen years old at the time of the commission of the alleged offenses. The indictments were tried together by consent of counsel, and there was a conviction of the defendant upon each of them.
The proofs in the case showed that each of these offenses was committed at the home of the defendant, and the only ground upon which we are asked to reverse the convictions is that the proofs showing this situation did not tend to support the charge contained in the indictment; that is, they did not show that these acts were acts of public indecency.
The indictments were based upon section 51 of our Crimes Act as amended in 1906, P. L. p. 101 (2 Comp. St 1910, p. 1762). The original section reads as follows: "Any person who shall be guilty of open lewdness, or any notorious act of public indecency, grossly scandalous, and tending to debauch the morals and manners of the people, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor." P. L. 1898, p. 808. The amendment of 1906 added the following after the words "morals and manners of the people": Or any person who shall in private be guilty of any act of lewdness or carnal indecency With another, grossly scandalous and tending to debauch the morals and manners of the people." As was pointed out by this court in State v. Michalis, 99 N. J. Law, 31, 122 A. 538, the statute as amended makes the acts described therein criminal offenses whether they are openly and publicly done, or whether they are done in private, in the presence of no one except the two participants. This being so, it seems to us that the inaccuracy of the statement...
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State v. Dorsey
...A.2d 765 (App.Div.1949). Acts likely to debauch or impair the morals of a minor were charged as private lewdness in State v. Spriggs, 106 N.J.L. 4, 147 A. 641 (Sup.Ct.1929); State v. Toohey, 6 N.J.Super. 97, 70 A.2d 180 (App.Div.1950); State v. Fleckenstein, 60 N.J.Super. 399, 159 A.2d 411 ......
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State v. Toohey, A--454
...for reversal. The defendant was not misled as to the matters of which he was accused, or prejudiced in his defense. State v. Spriggs, 106 N.J.L. 4, 147 A. 641 (Sup.Ct.1929). The defendant, upon his arrest, and a small boy who was found with him, were taken to the police station. Soon the bo......