Warren v. Territory of Hawaii, 9506.

Decision Date19 May 1941
Docket NumberNo. 9506.,9506.
PartiesWARREN v. TERRITORY OF HAWAII.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Charles B. Dwight, of Honolulu, T. H., for appellant.

Chas. E. Cassidy, Public Pros., and Kenneth E. Young, Deputy Public Pros., both of Honolulu, T. H., for appellee.

Before DENMAN, MATHEWS, and HEALY, Circuit Judges.

DENMAN, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Hawaii affirming a judgment of the Circuit Court of the First Circuit of the Territory of Hawaii of conviction for manslaughter by the procuress of a house of prostitution in Honolulu, who caused the death by electrocution of a police officer in the course of an attempt by the Honolulu Police Department to suppress that institution.

The mores of Hawaii proscribed such an institution and made its maintenance a misdemeanor.* It was particularly a menace as a place for the dissemination of venereal disease and perversion of sex because maintained near a camp of some 8,000 United States soldiers. The evidence is convincing that after an attempted police suppression a year before the appellant-procuress reopened her brothel and sought to frustrate such future interference by installing a high voltage electrical current connecting with a copper lattice-like plate on the door of the "house." By a switch which she could operate, she could send through the body of a policeman who touched the copper lattice in seeking entrance the high voltage current. The apparatus she first caused to be installed was insufficient in its shock and she had the transformer changed to increase its intensity. There is evidence from which the jury could infer that the procuress knew of the dangerous character of her device to resist the law officers. The evidence that the brothel keeper's device was aimed specifically at the Police Department is not the less significant because shown to be aimed also at possible burglars, there having been a previous burglary, and against drunken soldiers, who, lured there by the vicious persons she had gathered, might struggle to open or pound against the door.

The Police Department suspected the reopening of the brothel and sent one of its officers to investigate. This officer sought admission which was granted by the procuress, who sent one of her prostitutes to admit him. This prostitute took the officer to her room where she received the customary "professional dishonorarium" and sufficiently confirmed the Department's suspicion of the commission of the misdemeanor. By prearrangement, other officers were nearby, who, upon being advised by the police whistle of the officer inside that he needed assistance in making an arrest, were to enter. He seized the prostitute who had solicited him and blew his whistle, going to the front door to open it, when the procuress forcibly attempted to prevent him. He saw her arm extended inside the casing of another door leading upstairs where she made a downward motion of her hand, which later proved to have opened the switch and turned the high voltage current into the copper lattice outside the entrance door and into the officer's body.

Hearing the police whistle indicating need of assistance, one of the officers outside, finding the entrance door would not open took hold of the copper lattice to pull it towards him. The electrical current passed through his body and killed him. The point of electrical contact was the officer's burned thumb.

The police looked about after the door was opened by the officer inside and saw the wiring which led from the door to the transformer of the high voltage current. With the probable likelihood that someone still concealed in the house had committed one manslaughter and might commit another, the police entered the brothel the next day, found the lethal contrivance and removed its continuing menace by taking out the transformer and wiring. Such an entry is legal and the removal of such a continuing death trap from the prohibited brothel we regard as a normal police function.

Appellant's counsel earnestly urges that although his client was the keeper of a brothel, nevertheless the brothel was her "home"; and that the officer who entered it with her permission entered by "stealth" within the principles established in Gouled v. United States, 255 U.S. 298, 41 S.Ct. 261, 65 L.Ed. 647, and Blanchard v. United States, 5 Cir., 40 F.2d 904, 905, certiorari denied, 282 U.S. 865, 51 S.Ct. 40, 75 L.Ed. 765. However, it is plain that the "stealth" contemplated in these two cases could not consist of a guest's failure, upon his hostess' invitation into her home, to state to her that he did not want her to furnish him a prostitute for his entertainment. Though a brothel keeper is nonetheless within the protection of the Fourth Amendment concerning "unreasonable searches and seizures," the provision does not suspend one's reasoning powers in determining — here on the fact of the invitation to enter — what search is unreasonable. Lambert v. United States, 9 Cir., 282 F. 413, 417.

Appellant's counsel likewise earnestly urges that when, as a member of the Police Department, the officer who was permitted entry made certain it was a house of prostitution and attempted an arrest and blew a whistle which by prearrangement meant to other nearby members of his Department...

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10 cases
  • Crews v. United States
    • United States
    • D.C. Court of Appeals
    • 14 Junio 1978
    ...seq. There are other cases which have addressed inevitability concepts but defy rigid categorization. See, e. g., Warren v. Territory of Hawaii, 119 F.2d 936 (9th Cir. 1941). The rationales for rejecting inevitable discovery doctrine in the present case are equally applicable in these other......
  • State v. Evans
    • United States
    • Hawaii Supreme Court
    • 1 Junio 1962
    ...307. The questions involved in the contention under Silverthorne are illustrated by Territory v. Warren, 35 Haw. 232, 240, aff'd, 9 Cir., 119 F.2d 936, 938, and by a line of cases commencing with the remand for further proceedings made in Weiss v. United States, 308 U.S. 321, 60 S.Ct. 269, ......
  • State v. Kitashiro
    • United States
    • Hawaii Supreme Court
    • 2 Diciembre 1964
    ...to that discovered or derived from information obtained by an illegal seizure is not per se inadmissible. Close to home is Warren v. Territory, 9 Cir., 119 F.2d 936 (decided on appeal from this jurisdiction), in which it is stated at p. 938 on authority of the Silverthorne case '[K]nowledge......
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    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit
    • 14 Diciembre 1942
    ...on its merits, i. e., entertain it.8 Ortiz v. Public Service Commission, 1 Cir., 1940, 108 F.2d 815, 816; Warren v. Territory of Hawaii, 9 Cir., 1941, 119 F.2d 936, 938, 939. It is not requisite that the motion for rehearing be set down for argument. Citizens' Bank v. Opperman, supra; Warre......
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