Trent v. Commonwealth
| Decision Date | 26 April 1943 |
| Docket Number | Record No. 2684. |
| Citation | 181 Va. 338 |
| Court | Virginia Supreme Court |
| Parties | PEARL TRENT v. COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA. |
1. DISORDERLY HOUSES — Keeping Houses of Ill-Fame — Purpose of Statute. — The purpose of the statute, Code of 1942, section 4548, prohibiting the keeping of houses of ill-fame, is the suppression of commercial prostitution.
2. DISORDERLY HOUSES — Keeping Houses of Ill-Fame — Nuisances. — Houses of ill-fame are public nuisances.
3. DISORDERLY HOUSES — Keeping Houses of Ill-Fame — Use of Single Room. — Proof of the use of a single room for purposes of general prostitution will support an indictment for keeping a house for such purpose.
4. DISORDERLY HOUSES — Keeping Houses of Ill-Fame — Tent or Boat as House. — A canvas tent may be a house under an indictment for keeping a house for the purpose of general prostitution and so may a boat on a river when used as a habitation.
5. DISORDERLY HOUSES — Keeping Houses of Ill-Fame — Number of Women Resorting to Place. — It is not necessary that more than one woman inhabit or resort to a place for the purpose of prostitution in order for such place to constitute a house of ill-fame.
6. DISORDERLY HOUSES — Keeping Houses of Ill-Fame — Use by More Than One Woman. — A house is not necessarily a bawdy house even though more than one woman inhabits it and uses it for illicit sexual intercourse.
7. DISORDERLY HOUSES — Keeping Houses of Ill-Fame — Meaning of Prostitution. — Prostitution means common, indiscriminate, illicit intercourse for hire, or the practice by a female in offering her body to an indiscriminate intercourse with men for money or its equivalent.
8. DISORDERLY HOUSES — Keeping Houses of Ill-Fame — Meaning of House of Prostitution. — Every house where illicit sexual intercourse is indulged between a man and a woman is not necessarily a house of prostitution. In order to constitute such a house, it must have the elements of a public house; a house which many people may frequent for immoral purposes or a house where a person may go for immoral purposes without an invitation.
9. DISORDERLY HOUSES — Keeping Houses of Ill-Fame — Sufficiency of Evidence — Case at Bar. — In the instant case, a prosecution for keeping a house of ill-fame, the evidence showed that defendant kept a boarding house and had been once before convicted of keeping a house of ill-fame. The house was raided and defendant was found in bed with a man. About two weeks before the raid a soldier had contracted a venereal disease at the place and another soldier had been carried by a taxicab driver to it where he had sexual intercourse with an unidentified woman for which he paid three dollars. It was also in evidence that the house had the general reputation of being one of ill-fame.
Held: That the evidence was sufficient to sustain the jury's verdict of guilty which had been confirmed by the trial court.
Error to a judgment of the Circuit Court of Elizabeth City county. Hon. John Weymouth, judge presiding.
The opinion states the case.
Francis T. Wheeler and A. W. E. Bassette, Jr., for the plaintiff in error.
Abram P. Staples, Attorney General, Walter E. Rogers, Assistant Attorney General, and Carrington Thompson, Special Assistant, for the Commonwealth.
The defendant has been convicted of keeping a house of ill fame. Our statute, which governs this subject, reads:
Code, section 4548.
The defendant kept a boarding house and was under contract with the Newcomb Fish Company to give breakfast and supper to between thirty-five and forty men, and this she did. Violation of the liquor law of this State was suspected, and about one a.m. on May 2, 1942, an officer of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, accompanied by an officer of the Military Police, raided her premises, 40 Fulton Street, near Phoebus, in Elizabeth City county.
Certain evidence tending to show violation of our liquor laws was found, but since that is not the offense here charged, we pass it over.
The house itself is a small, five-room cottage with two bedrooms. In it the defendant lived, and in it also were two negro girls who served as waitresses. When this raid was made, only one room was found locked. When its door was opened, Pearl Trent, practically undressed, was found in bed with Bernard Ross. She, herself, had been convicted on June 1, 1940, of keeping a house of ill fame. About two weeks before the raid which was here made, a soldier at Fortress Monroe contracted a venereal disease at this place from a woman not named. On March 3, 1942, another soldier was carried by a taxicab driver to it where he had sexual intercourse with an unidentified woman, for which he paid three dollars. It is also in evidence that this house had the general reputation of being one of ill fame, which evidence, as we have seen, is made competent by statute.
1, 2 There are enacted statutes governing this subject in probably every State of the Union. Their language is seldom the same, but they have one common purpose: The suppression of commercial prostitution. That traffic flourishes in the houses of ill fame. They are often disorderly; they are public nuisances; they are wholly immoral and serve as centers of infection for disastrous social diseases. The purpose of these statutes is too plain to be misunderstood, and since this...
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