People v. Báez

45 P.R. 498
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedJuly 22, 1933
DocketNo. 4166
StatusPublished

This text of 45 P.R. 498 (People v. Báez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Báez, 45 P.R. 498 (prsupreme 1933).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Aldrey

delivered tlie opinion of the Court.

Enrique Báez was indicted by the Grand Jury of the judicial district of Mayagiiez for the crime of embezzlement. It was charged against him that being an officer of the People of Puerto Rico, as clerk of the District Court for the Judicial District of Mayagiiez, and while in charge of receiving, keeping under his custody and in his possession, and legally transferring and disbursing the sums of money deposited with him in civil suits, during one of the days of the month of October, 1926, he received in his said official capacity from the marshal of the said court, the sum of $3,500, proceeding from a judicial sale made in civil suit No. 11966, brought by Clotilde Toro de Diaz, as mother with patria potestas over her minor children, the said sum belonging to the said minors; and that said Enrique Báez, unlawfully, wil-fully, maliciously, and fraudulently appropriated to his own use, and in a manner contrary to the due and legal discharge of his official duties, the said sum of $3,500, which had been entrusted to him and which came into his possession in the discharge of his office in the aforesaid suit, thus depriving the owners thereof of said sum.

The cause was transferred to the District Court of Agua-dilla, where a jury found him guilty of said crime and he was sentenced therefor.

In the appeal taken from the judgment of conviction, he assigns as error that the District Court of Aguadilla acted without jurisdiction in taking cognizance of the case and in rendering judgment against him. He appealed from the order of the District Court of Mayagiiez which decreed the removal of the cause to the District Court of Aguadilla, and we decided the case by affirming the order for a change of [501]*501venue (44 P.R.R. 52), for which reason the alleged error can not he sustained.

The second error assigned relates to the admission in evidence of a certain certificate containing some matter prejudicial to the defendant. In order to prove that the defendant was clerk of the District Court of Mayagiiez at that time, the prosecuting attorney presented a certificate issued by the Executive Secretary of Puerto Rico, reciting the appointments made in favor of the defendant for said office and setting forth at the end thereof that he filled that office until he was suspended by the Governor on December 4, 1926, and his removal decreed on the 24th of the same month and year. The prosecuting attorney stated at the trial that he was presenting that certificate in so far as it referred to the appointments made in favor of the defendant as clerk. The defendant objected to the same on account of the concluding statement contained in the certificate, inasmuch as its only effect on the jury would be to prejudice the defendant with regard to his conduct and reputation. The court admitted the certificate, and announced that at the proper time it would instruct the jury so as to avoid what counsel for the defense seemed to fear; and in its charge to the jury the court said, with regard to that part of the certificate, that the same was absolutely foreign to the evidence allowed and to that which should properly be admitted by the court, and that if the evidence was before the court with that addition, it was solely because the document was written in a single sheet of paper, and because it would be impossible to eliminate said addition without mutilating and impairing the authenticity of the document by losing the signature and the seal, but that the court repeated that the jury should not take into consideration that part of the certificate; that the jury might not draw any inference which might prejudice the defendant in the least with regard to that circumstance; that the added portion was absolutely unnecessary and that the [502]*502same should be considered as not written in the document; that the said addition should not influence the minds of the jury in any way; that it should not produce any reaction in their minds in weighing all of the evidence that was lawfully admissible.

Really, that part of the certificate which has been mentioned was not admissible in evidence, and this was acknowledged when the district attorney offered the document solely with regard to the appointments, and when it was admitted by the court subject to the instruction which it would give to the jury, as it did, and which, as may be seen therefrom, is so clear and precise that if the jury have discharged, and we suppose they did, their duty not to take into consideration the matter in question, we must reach the conclusion that it has not produced in the minds of the jurors any prejudice against the defendant. The case of People v. Rodríguez, 33 P.R.R. 461, cited by the appellant in support of the alleged error, is not applicable to the case at bar, because there the certificate presented in evidence referred solely to the statement that the Council of Administration of Yauco had suspended the defendant from his office by reason of irregularities committed by him, for which reason its object at the trial could be no other than to prove that fact to the prejudice of the defendant, while in the present case that portion of the certificate which we are now discussing was not introduced in evidence by the prosecuting attorney, and although it formed part of the document which was not impeached, in so far as the appointments were concerned, the court said that the jury should not take the objected part into consideration. At the trial the appellant did not object to the certificate because the same referred to his appointments generally without setting forth literal copies thereof, for which reason we do not have to decide this question raised for the first time in this appeal. People v. Bird, 5 P.R.R. 183; People v. Borrás, 9 P.R.R. 371; People v. Asencio, 16 P.R.R. 337; People v. Alsina, 22 P.R.R. 426, and People v. Carrión, 35 P.R.R. 828.

[503]*503In order to prove that the defendant took possession of the office of clerk of the District Court of Mayagtiez, the prosecuting attorney presented the oaths of office which had been taken by the defendant before judicial officers, and the appellant in his third assignment of error insists that said documents should not have been admitted by the court because it had not been properly shown that the appellant was the clerk of said court; but we have already said that the document reciting the appointments of the appellant to said office was admissible subject to the announcement made by the court in connection with the addition it contained, and consequently as it had been shown that he was appointed to that office, no error was committed in admitting evidence with regard’ to his taking possession thereof.

In the fourth assignment of error the appellant says that the court erred in admitting a record of a proceeding for judicial authorization, without the same having been duly identified by the clerk of the court. That officer testified that said proceeding pertained to that court and this was a sufficient identification thereof, even though he stated that the district attorney had the record with him to be used in this criminal case.

The fifth assignment reads thus: “The District Court of Aguadilla erred in admitting in evidence an uncertified copy or note of a receipt which was said to have been made by the witness Lorenzo Suárez, and which was by no means admissible in evidence.”

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Bluebook (online)
45 P.R. 498, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-baez-prsupreme-1933.