United States v. Jamerson, 2135

• Decision Date: 30 November 1944
• Docket Number: No. 2135,2135
• Citation: 60 F. Supp. 281
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. JAMERSON.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Iowa

60 F. Supp. 281

UNITED STATES v. JAMERSON.

No. 2135, Criminal.

District Court, N. D. Iowa, Central Division.

November 30, 1944.

T. E. Diamond, U. S. Dist. Atty., and Franklin E. Gill, Asst. U. S. Dist. Atty., both of Sioux City, Iowa, for the United States.

L. R. Boomhower and Leslie L. Boomhower, both of Mason City, Iowa, for defendant.

GRAVEN, District Judge.

A Mann Act case under 18 U.S.C.A. § 398.

On requests for instructions and objections to evidence.

In this case the defendant is charged with having in April, 1942, transported Mabel Brooks and Christine Hawkins from Omaha, Nebraska, to Mason City, Iowa, by automobile for the purposes of having them practice prostitution at Mason City, Iowa. In this case the Government's claim is as hereafter set forth and evidence has been introduced by it which tends to support such claim. The defendant, Elizabeth Jamerson, a colored woman, was the owner and operator of a house of prostitution in Mason City, Iowa, operated with colored inmates. That in the Spring of 1942, she was in need of inmates. In April, 1942, she left Mason City, Iowa, in a Packard car owned by her and driven by her colored chauffeur and drove to Omaha, Nebraska. She arrived at Omaha, Nebraska, in the afternoon and went to a home of a friend. Mabel Brooks and Christine Hawkins, two colored prostitutes, lived near the home of that friend. Shortly after arriving in Omaha, the defendant contacted Mabel Brooks and Christine Hawkins and urged them to come to Mason City and practice prostitution at her place of business. After discussion and agreement as to the details of working arrangements the two girls agreed to go. At four o'clock A.M. the next morning the defendant called for the two girls, and the car was driven across the Missouri River to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and then on to Mason City and directly to the defendant's place of business there. The car, both coming and going, was driven by the defendant's chauffeur. The two girls practiced prostitution briefly at Mason City and then left because of dissatisfaction with working conditions.

Omaha, Nebraska, is on one side of the Missouri River and Council Bluffs, Iowa, is on the other side of it. The middle channel of the Missouri River constitutes the boundary line between the States of Iowa and Nebraska. Iowa Constitution, Preamble, Boundaries; see also Lienemann v. Sarpy County, Neb. 1944, 16 N.W.2d 725, 729. At the time the defendant and the two girls were making their arrangements in Omaha, the possible application of the Mann Act to the trip to Mason City came up for discussion. As to who first brought up the matter is in dispute, but all three seemed to be aware that the Mann Act might be involved. One of the parties at least, apparently claimed to have been advised that the way to "beat the Mann Act" was to walk across the state line. There is a toll bridge across the Missouri River between Omaha, Nebraska, and Council Bluffs, Iowa. The toll house is beyond the bridge on the Iowa side with a distance intervening between it and the Iowa end of the bridge. When the car was on or in the vicinity of the bridge, the car was stopped by the direction of the defendant and the two girls got out and walked a short distance. They were then picked up by the car again and the car proceeded on its way to Mason City. As to whether the two girls did in fact walk across the state line in this case is in dispute. It is the claim of the two girls that the defendant being unfamiliar with the locality mistakenly assumed that the toll house marked the state line, and the defendant let them out at the toll house and that they walked east from there and thus did all their walking in the State of Iowa. It is the claim of the defendant that the two girls got out of the car at the Nebraska side of the bridge and walked across the bridge over the main channel of the river. The Government and the defendant have made requests for instructions relative to the matter of the walk taken by the two girls. There could be two different situations in regard to this phase of the case. In the first place it will be necessary for the jury to determine whether the two girls did in fact walk across the state line. If the jury should find that the two girls did all their walking in the State of Iowa, then the matter of walking across the state line is not involved. However, since the jury could find that the two girls did walk across the boundary line as claimed by the defendant, it is necessary for the instructions to cover that situation. It is the view and holding of the Court, for the reasons hereafter indicated, that the defendant is not entitled to an instruction peremptorily instructing the jury that if they find that the two girls did in fact walk across the boundary line that the defendant should be acquitted. It is believed that an instruction broader in scope is required.

There is not involved in this case whether a woman could transport herself across a state line by walking, since the indictment in this case charges the defendant with transportation by automobile.

In Caminetti v. United States, 1917, 242 U.S. 470, on page 491, 37 S.Ct. 192, on page 197, 61 L.Ed. 442, L.R.A.1917F, 502, Ann. Cas.1917B, 1168, it is stated in regard to the Mann Act: "It seeks to reach and punish the movement in interstate commerce of women and girls with a view to the accomplishment of the unlawful purposes prohibited."

While the Mann Act includes within its scope both so-called non-commercial cases and commercial cases (Caminetti v. United States, supra; Simon v. United States, 4 Cir., Oct. 18, 1944, 145 F.2d 345), it seems clearly indicated by the Congressional record in connection with the passage of the Act and the decisions (Mortensen v. United States, 1944, 322 U.S. 369, 64 S.Ct. 1037, 88 L.Ed. 1331) that the primary purpose of the Act was to deal with the so-called commercial type of cases.

Counsel for the Government in the instant case claims that in this area the idea has become somewhat prevalent among those commercially engaged in supplying prostitutes and procuring and recruiting women and girls for purposes of prostitution, that a way has been found in which women and girls for purposes of prostitution can be gotten from state to state with perfect immunity so far as the Mann Act is concerned. The so-called way of "beating the Mann Act", is to avoid having the women travel by train or bus, but to transport them by automobile, and to stop the automobile just before a state line is reached, and then have the women walk across the state line and then pick them up by automobile on the other side of the line. It would seem that if that theory is valid the Mann Act would in the main have to do with the non-commercial type of cases, since it would seem to be obvious that those engaged in commercialized vice would and do receive legal advice as to how to avoid any unpleasant consequences under the Mann Act, while those whose transportation of a woman constitutes an isolated non-commercial venture based upon impulse and reciprocating passion would not be so fortified, and these latter would be the only ones who would run afoul of the Act. If such is the law it is obvious that the plain intent of Congress in regard to commercialized movement of women from state to state for purposes of prostitution, has been thwarted by judicial interpretation and construction. If such is the law then the Mann Act is merely a means of trapping a few non-commercial minnows, while the sharks of commercialized vice carry on their predatory work with impunity and immunity.

It is believed that the intent of Congress should not be thwarted by unrealistic, unnatural, strained or highly technical construction and interpretation of the Act. In the case of Scott v. Prudential Ins. Co. of America, 1940, 207 Minn. 131, 290 N.W. 431, 433, it is pertinently said: "Judicial erosion of a statute by unwarranted narrowness of interpretation * * * is as much forbidden as outright judicial disobedience. * * * Judges have no right to maim or bleed it to death by a construction so `strict' as to result in judicial mayhem." In the case of State v. Gurley, 1902, 170 Mo. 429, 70 S.W. 875, 876, it is aptly stated that: "Neither courts nor juries are required to believe nonsense merely because it is sworn to."

Courts and juries are concerned with the realities of a situation, and the jury in the instant case has a right to decide what the realities are. In the instant case the jury could find that the defendant was engaged in the commercializing of prostitution, and that the sole object, purpose and intent of the defendant was to get the two girls from Omaha, Nebraska, to Mason City, Iowa, to have them engage in commercialized prostitution at the latter place. The Federal Courts have made it clear in a number of cases that under the Mann Act the legal responsibility of a defendant is to be measured and determined by what the real object and purpose of the trip was and not what took place or happened incidentally. For example, if a man transports a woman from one state to another and the real object and purpose of the trip was something other than sexual in nature, the fact that as an incident to and in connection with the trip sexual relations are had, the Mann Act is not involved. Biggerstaff v. United States, 8 Cir., 1919, 260 F. 926; Thorn v. United States, 8 Cir., 1922, 278 F. 932; Sloan v. United States, 8 Cir., 1923, 287 F. 91; United States v. Reginelli, 3 Cir., 1942, 133 F.2d 595. In the case of Mortensen v. United States, 1944, 322 U.S. 369, 374, 64 S.Ct. 1037, 88 L.Ed. 1331, the United States Supreme Court makes use of the terms "dominant motive" and "motivation" in connection with transportation under the Mann Act. In the instant case the jury could find that the "dominant motive" of the defendant was to get the two girls from Omaha, Nebraska, to Mason City, Iowa, for purposes of prostitution, and...