People v. Behymer

198 N.E.2d 729, 48 Ill. App. 2d 218, 1964 Ill. App. LEXIS 717
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 19, 1964
DocketGen. 11,857
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 198 N.E.2d 729 (People v. Behymer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Behymer, 198 N.E.2d 729, 48 Ill. App. 2d 218, 1964 Ill. App. LEXIS 717 (Ill. Ct. App. 1964).

Opinion

ROETH, JUSTICE.

Defendant was convicted in a trial before a jury, of keeping a place of prostitution in violation of sec 11-17 of cbap 38, Ill Rev Stats 1961. She was sentenced to serve a term of 1 year at Illinois State Reformatory for Women. This appeal followed.

There is no dispute in the facts. In the evening of July 27, 1962, Illinois State Trooper Donald Murphy left a Peoria Police car parked on Jefferson Street about three-fourths a block from 101 Warner Street, Peoria, Illinois. State Trooper Robert Webb and Frank Fosco of the Peoria Police Department remained in the automobile parked on Jefferson Street and Murphy, who was assigned to the criminal investigation section of the Illinois State Highway Police, walked south on Jefferson Street to State Street and turned on State Street into an alley that leads to the address at 101 Warnér Street, Peoria, Illinois, walked up to the outdoor porch, and knocked on the screen door of these premises.

One Dorothy Madison opened the inner door and while Trooper Murphy talked with Dorothy Madison, the defendant, Betty Behymer, walked up on the porch and stood beside Trooper Murphy. The defendant, Betty Behymer, asked Trooper Murphy his address and his name. She also asked for identification and Trooper Murphy showed the defendant his chauffeur’s license. Betty Behymer then entered the premises at 101 Warner Street, Peoria, Illinois, when Dorothy Madison took the hook off of the outer screen door admitting the defendant. Officer Murphy remained on the front porch of the premises. The defendant then asked Trooper Murphy where he worked and further asked him where the offices of his alleged employment were located. The defendant further questioned Officer Murphy concerning the location of particular businesses in the City of Chenoa, Illinois, where Officer Murphy told her he resided. Betty Behymer asked him who had sent him to these premises and then she.turned to Dorothy Madison, who was at the door, and told her, “I am not scared of him, you can let him in.” Dorothy Madison next took the hook off the screen door and opened it allowing Trooper Murphy to enter the premises.

Upon entry of the premises, Trooper Murphy asked the defendant, what were the prices. Her reply was, “We don’t discuss prices out here, honey, you take a girl in a room and you discuss prices with her.” Trooper Murphy then followed Kay Crosley, who was dressed in a transparent negligee, into a bedroom while the defendant remained in the main sitting room of the premises. Kay Crosley closed the bedroom door behind Trooper Murphy and requested to inspect the officer. She said that she was afraid that he was a policeman and that she was going to get pinched again. Trooper Murphy requested the price and Kay Crosley replied, “How much can you afford?” A marked ten dollar bill was shown to Kay Crosley and she replied, “Can you spend it all?” When an affirmative reply was given she stated, “I will give you a real party for that.” Kay Crosley told Trooper Murphy that she would not take the money until he was first inspected, for if he were found not to be clean, she could not take care of him and there would be no hard feelings.

Trooper Murphy then placed the occupants of the premises under arrest, but found that the defendant Betty Behymer had left the premises while he was in the bedroom with Kay Crosley. After Trooper Murphy placed the occupants of the house under arrest, Trooper Webb and Officer Fosco proceeded to the premises to assist in placing the girls into a police wagon.

Approximately one hour after the raid and arrest of the occupants at 101 Warner Avenue the defendant, Betty Behymer, telephoned the Peoria Police Station and talked with Detective William Frede. She said to Detective Frede, “This is Betty, I want to know when I can get my girls out of jail.” The Defendant was told that she was wanted as a keeper of a house of prostitution and could not get her girls out of jail until she and Dorothy Madison came in to be booked pursuant to the raid on the house of prostitution at 101 Warner Street. The defendant said that she would come into the police station and she, in fact, came to the Peoria Police Station on the morning of July 28, 1962.

On March 25,1963, the defendant had a conversation with Officer Frank Fosco at the lunch counter of the Court House, Peoria, Illinois. The defendant told Officer Fosco that her trouble stemmed from Jimmy Lewis and Pam Miller due to the fact that she was buying the house at 101 Warner Street, Peoria, Illinois, from Jimmy Lewis.

Several errors are assigned to reverse the judgment. We consider them in the order set forth in counsel’s brief. The first revolves around a situation claimed to be shown by the record, namely, that defendant, previous to the conviction in the case at bar, had been prosecuted under a city ordinance for this same offense and acquitted. It is claimed that the case falls within the prohibition of sec 3-3 (b) of chap 38, HI Rev Stats 1961, and in addition that the double jeopardy rules generally apply. At the outset of a consideration of this question we should observe that it is extremely doubtful whether the record adequately reflects the factual situation upon which this contention is premised. However, we are inclined to consider the legal question as though the record did so show.

The background of insertion of sec 3-3 (b) in the Criminal Code of 1961 is fully discussed in the “Committee Comments on the Proposed Illinois Criminal Code” contained in pamphlet entitled Proposed Illinois Bevised Criminal Code of 1961, pages 120 to 127. Primarily this section was intended to affect situations such as arose in People v. Ciucci, 8 Ill2d 619, 137 NE2d 40. See also Ciucci v. Illinois, 356 US 571, 78 S Ct 839, 2 L Ed2d 983. Nowhere in the Committee Comments is it even remotely suggested that this section covers the situation at bar. Furthermore, it is important to note that the section in question uses' the word “Offenses” in requiring that several offenses based upon the same act must be prosecuted in a single prosecution. This word, by definition (Ill Rev Stats 1961, c 38, § 2-12) means violations of the penal statutes of the State. Basically the section in question was meant to give a more enlightened view of the double jeopardy provisions of the Constitution. However, in our opinion this concept has no application where the same act constitutes a violation of both a city ordinance and a state statute. As early as Wragg et al. v. Penn Township, 94 Ill 11 (a case which has been often cited and never overruled), it was recognized that the same act might constitute a violation of a city ordinance and of a state statute and that prosecution could be sustained under both without violating the double jeopardy concept. The precise question urged by counsel for defendant was involved in Nicholson v. The People, 29 Ill App 57, wherein it was held that a defendant is not in double jeopardy when tried under a state statute after a former acquittal for violation of a city ordinance where the act involved is the same under both. The Wragg case, supra, is cited as supporting this doctrine. See also City of Chicago v. Clark, 359 Ill 374, 194 NE 537. We conclude that there is no merit in this contention of counsel for defendant.

It is next contended that error was committed by the trial court in refusing to grant the motion of counsel for defendant for leave to withdraw from the case.

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Bluebook (online)
198 N.E.2d 729, 48 Ill. App. 2d 218, 1964 Ill. App. LEXIS 717, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-behymer-illappct-1964.