United States v. Vander Jagt

• Decision Date: 10 November 1955
• Docket Number: Misc. A. No. 123.
• Citation: 135 F. Supp. 676
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Leendert Albertus VANDER JAGT, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Michigan

135 F. Supp. 676

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Leendert Albertus VANDER JAGT, Defendant.

Misc. A. No. 123.

United States District Court W. D. Michigan, S. D.

November 10, 1955.

Wendell A. Miles, U. S. Atty., Grand Rapids, Mich., for plaintiff.

Leendert Albertus Vander Jagt, in pro. per.

STARR, Chief Judge.

This is a proceeding by the government to revoke and set aside the order admitting the defendant to citizenship in the United States of America and to cancel the certificate of naturalization issued to him December 21, 1948. Nationality Act of 1940, § 338(a), 54 Stat. 1158 (formerly 8 U.S.C.A. § 738a, now 8 U.S.C.A. § 1451a.

The defendant was born in the Netherlands on May 2, 1904, and entered the United States on October 4, 1923. On October 23, 1923, he was married to Neeltje (Nellie) Eversdyke in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and 13 children were born of their marriage as follows:

Forvina, born August 20, 1924, at Grand Rapids, Michigan; Cora, born September 10, 1925, at Grand Rapids, Michigan; Floris (Floyd), born April 11, 1927, at Spring Lake, Michigan; Ellen, born April 9, 1929, at Spring Lake, Michigan; Leonard, born May 16, 1930, at Spring Lake, Michigan; Marion, born November 4, 1931, at Coopersville, Michigan; Lorraine, born January 16, 1933, at Coopersville, Michigan; Donald, born June 26, 1934, at Coopersville, Michigan; Howard, born May 26, 1936, at Coopersville, Michigan; Elizabeth, born September 16, 1937, at Coopersville, Michigan; Kenneth, born March 10, 1939, at Conklin, Michigan; Nancy, born October 16, 1940, at Conklin, Michigan; and Rodger, born December 27, 1943, at Conklin, Michigan.

On August 14, 1945, the defendant filed his declaration of intention to become a citizen of the United States in the circuit court of Ottawa county, Michigan, that being a State court of record, and on November 16, 1948, he filed his petition for naturalization in that court. Nationality Act of 1940, §§ 331, 332, 54 Stat. 1153, 1154 (formerly 8 U.S.C.A. §§ 731, 732, now 8 U.S.C.A. § 1445). In connection with his petition for naturalization the defendant stated in substance that he had been arrested in 1946 for violation of the State school law in that he had failed to send certain of his children to school, and that for this offense he paid a fine of $114. He made no other statements, disclosures or admissions in connection with his petition for naturalization which in any way indicated that he was not a person of good moral character. On December 21, 1948, he was admitted to citizenship and was issued a certificate of naturalization.

Section 307(a) of the Nationality Act of 1940, 54 Stat. 1142 (formerly 8 U.S. C.A. § 707a, now 8 U.S.C.A. § 1427 a), provided:

"No person, except as hereinafter provided in this Act, shall be naturalized unless such petitioner, (1) immediately preceding the date of filing petition for naturalization has resided continuously within the United States for at least five years * * *, and (3) during all the periods referred to in this subsection has been and still is a person of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the United States."

On June 3, 1949, about five months and a half after his naturalization, and upon complaint of his son, Floris, the defendant was arrested and charged with the rape of his 17-year-old daughter, Marion Vander Jagt. Comp.Laws Mich.1948, § 750.520.¹ He was arraigned in the circuit court of Ottawa county, Michigan, and voluntarily pleaded guilty of said crime, and on June 14, 1949, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in the State prison of southern Michigan at Jackson. He has since been transferred to the Ionia State hospital for the criminally insane within this judicial district, where he is now confined. The defendant's motion for a new trial and his petition for the writ of habeas corpus filed in the circuit court of Ottawa county were both denied.

In the course of a subsequent investigation by officers of the immigration and naturalization service, it was disclosed that during the five-year period immediately preceding his naturalization on December 21, 1948, the defendant had had sexual intercourse with three or more of his teen-age daughters, such acts constituting the crime of incest under Comp.Laws Mich.1948, § 750.333, which provides:

"Incest — Any person who is within the degree of consanguinity with another within which marriages are prohibited or declared by law to be incestuous and void, or the marriage of whom is prohibited by sections 3 and 4 of chapter 83 of the Revised Statutes of 1846, being sections 12692 and 12693 of the Compiled Laws of 1929, and shall marry such other person, or shall commit adultery or fornication with such other person, shall be guilty of a felony, punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than 10 years."

Section 338(a) and (e) of the Nationality Act of 1940, 54 Stat. 1158, 1159 (formerly 8 U.S.C.A. § 738a and e, now 8 U.S.C.A. § 1451a and g), provided:

"(a) It shall be the duty of the United States district attorneys for the respective districts, upon affidavit showing good cause therefor, to institute proceedings in any court specified in subsection (a) of section 301 in the judicial district in which the naturalized citizen may reside at the time of bringing suit, for the purpose of revoking and setting aside the order admitting such person to citizenship and canceling the certificate of naturalization on the ground of fraud or on the ground that such order and certificate of naturalization were illegally procured.

"(e) When a person shall be convicted under this Act of knowingly procuring naturalization in violation of law, the court in which such conviction is had shall thereupon revoke, set aside, and declare void the final order admitting such person to citizenship, and shall declare the certificate of naturalization of such person to be canceled. Jurisdiction is hereby conferred on the courts having jurisdiction of the trial of such offense to make such adjudication."

A representative of the immigration and naturalization service having made affidavit that defendant's certificate of naturalization was illegally procured, the government began the present action to revoke and set aside the order admitting him to citizenship and to cancel the certificate of naturalization issued to him December 21, 1948, on the ground that his citizenship and certificate of naturalization were fraudulently and illegally procured, in that he was not a person of good moral character during the five-year period immediately preceding his petition for naturalization and at the time of his naturalization. In response to the government's petition the defendant filed a written statement, which will be considered as an answer, in which he contends in effect that he was not guilty of the rape of his daughter Marion as charged in the criminal proceedings in the circuit court of Ottawa county and of which crime he had pleaded guilty. In his statement or answer he requested an investigation by the immigration and naturalization authorities as to his guilt of that crime.

This action was set for trial on October 21st of this year and defendant...