Hoctor v. State

3 N.W.2d 558, 141 Neb. 329, 1942 Neb. LEXIS 119
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedApril 24, 1942
DocketNo. 31189
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 3 N.W.2d 558 (Hoctor v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hoctor v. State, 3 N.W.2d 558, 141 Neb. 329, 1942 Neb. LEXIS 119 (Neb. 1942).

Opinion

Messmoee, J.

Plaintiff in error, defendant below, was charged in an in-, formation, filed August 31, 1940, with the crime of embezzlement of $9,110.10, belonging to Douglas county, Nebraska. At the time, he was the duly elected, qualified and acting county clerk of said county.

The charge is, in substance^ as follows: That on or about the 29th day of August, 1940, the defendant, “as such officer being charged with the collection, receipt, safe-keeping, transfer, and disbursement of the public money belonging to the county of Douglas, state of Nebraska, then and there unlawfully and feloniously did fraudulently convert to his own use and embezzle of said public money” $9,110.10, “which said money had then and there come into the custody and possession of the said James P. Hoctor, by virtue of his said office * * * a portion of the public money received, controlled, and held by him for safe-keeping, transfer, and disbursement as such county clerk. * * * ”

A copy of the information was served personally on the defendant as provided by law. He was arraigned September [332]*33212, 1940, and entered his plea of not guilty. November 19, 1940, the county attorney procured leave to amend the information by alleging that the embezzlement occurred between January 1, 1940, and July 26, 1940. Defendant had no knowledge of the amendment. January 6,1941, the court granted the defendant the right to withdraw his plea of not guilty and file a motion to quash the original information. This motion was overruled. Subsequently, a demurrer to such information was overruled.

The record is in dispute as to whether or not the defendant was arraigned on,the amended information; he was not served with a copy thereof, and he complains that he did not have the 24-hour period in which to prepare his defense. The jury was impaneled January 6, 1941; the case proceeded to trial January 7, 1941. The county attorney, in his opening statement, predicated the case on the amended information, as amended; defendant’s counsel checked statements made with the first information filed and served on defendant, being the only information of which defendant and his counsel were aware. Objection to the procedure was made, and at the conclusion of argument thereon the court directed that the case proceed on the original information, permitting amendment to the amended information to conform to the original. Request was made to reassert the motion to quash and the demurrer to the information, as finally amended. The request was denied, and the demurrer to the opening statement of the state was overruled. The opening statement was then made by the county attorney on the original information, and the cause proceeded to trial. Objection was made thereto and to the taking- of testimony after the first witness was sworn, and a motion of dismissal was made and overruled. The jury returned a verdict convicting the defendant of embezzlement of $8,617.72 from Douglas county, Nebraska. At the conclusion of the testimony, defendant moved for a directed verdict, which was overruled. Motion for a new trial was overruled. The defendant was sentenced to two years in the penitentiary and to pay a fine of $17,235.44. He brings the record of his conviction to this court for review.

[333]*333Defendant contends that the foregoing rulings of the court constituted prejudicial error, in that the same are violative of section 3, art. I of the Constitution of Nebraska, reading in part: “No person shall be deprived of * * * liberty * * * without due process of lawviolative of section 11, art. I of the Constitution, reading in part: “In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall have the right to * * * demand the nature and cause of accusation, and to have a copy thereof and violative of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, reading in part: “No State shall * * * deprive any person * * * of liberty * * * without due process of law.”

The contention is based on section 29-1802, Comp. St. 1929, which refers to indictments, and provides that the de-. fendant shall be served with a copy thereof and shall not be, “without his assent, arraigned or called on to answer to any indictment until one day shall have elapsed, after receiving in person or by counsel, or having an opportunity to receive a copy of such indictment as aforesaid.” In this state, in the absence of an indictment by a grand jury, the county attorney may inform against the defendant, and the same rule applies as stated in the foregoing statute.

The law is settled in this state that the defendant’s right to have a copy of the information and one day thereafter to prepare for trial is a substantial right, and a denial thereof is error, if the right has not been waived. Barker v. State, 54 Neb. 53, 74 N. W. 427; Wozniak v. State, 103 Neb. 749, 174 N. W. 298. It will be noted that the first amendment to the information constituted a change in the dates only and did not change the offense as charged in any of its details. Upon an analysis of the authorities, we conclude the following are applicable to the situation presented by the procedure above set out:

The rule as stated in 23 C. J. S. 245, sec. 942, follows: “If an indictment is amended by the insertion of matter which substantially changes the crime charged, or which includes another person in the charge, accused must be served with a copy of the amended indictment. (In the instant case, the [334]*334offense charged was not changed.) However, it has been held that the failure to give accused a copy of the amended indictment was not error where no prejudice was shown. Where the amendment consists of a matter of form only, without effecting any material change, or where matter is stricken out diminishing the aggravating- circumstances, a copy of the amended indictment need not be served.” While the foregoing rule relates to indictments, it is applicable in this state, where the county attorney, by virtue of law, is an informant, without the assistance of a grand jury except when called. This is reflected by the decisions cited by the state.

In the case of Razee v. State, 73 Neb. 732, 103 N. W. 438, the county attorney was' permitted to amend the information. The court said: “There can be no substantial objection urged to an amended information which charges the same offense on which the accused has had his preliminary examination.” The amendment involved matters of clerical errors and punctuation.

In the case of Eigbrett v. State, 111 Neb. 388, 196 N. W. 700, it was claimed that the defendant was deprived of the statutory right to be served with a copy of the information on which he was tried. A copy of the information as originally drawn was served on the defendant, as required by law. The change made by the amendment consisted of indorsing thereon the names of three additional witnesses and in inserting in the county attorney’s recital of the date on which he filed the information the year 1923. There was no change in the accusation or in the date of the offense charged, and the original information was in no wise amended to his. in jury. The court held:

“Accused in a criminal prosecution is entitled to a copy of the information within 24 hours after it is filed in the district court, but he is not, as a matter of right, entitled to an additional copy merely because, with his knowledge, additional names of witnesses are properly indorsed on the information, nor because the information is amended in an immaterial respect in no wise changing the accusation.”

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Bluebook (online)
3 N.W.2d 558, 141 Neb. 329, 1942 Neb. LEXIS 119, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hoctor-v-state-neb-1942.