People v. Claasen

313 P.2d 579, 152 Cal. App. 2d 660, 1957 Cal. App. LEXIS 1945
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 19, 1957
DocketCrim. 2740
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 313 P.2d 579 (People v. Claasen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Claasen, 313 P.2d 579, 152 Cal. App. 2d 660, 1957 Cal. App. LEXIS 1945 (Cal. Ct. App. 1957).

Opinion

*661 VAN DYKE, P. J.

This is an appeal by defendant from a judgment based on a jury verdict finding him guilty of violating section 288a of the Penal Code. A consideration of the points raised on appeal requires a statement of the substance of the evidence.

Witnesses for the People testified to the following: On July 28, 1956, appellant said to Roger-, a 12-year-old boy whom he addressed on a public street in Areata, California, “How would you like to make a few easy bucks?” Roger asked him how he was to do this and appellant told him to follow him to his car and he would explain. The two went to appellant’s car and got in. Appellant started the motor and said “Let’s go out of town and talk.” The boy reached over and turned off the switch, saying “We can talk here.” Appellant said “I will give you a dollar to go with me for a half hour and two dollars to go with me for an hour and later on, why, you’ll start making thirty or forty bucks a week.” Appellant did not explain what he wanted Roger to do. Another boy approached appellant’s car and Roger asked appellant if the other boy could be let in on the work and was told “No, this is a one kid job.” Roger was somewhat frightened. He refused to go with appellant. Shortly thereafter Roger saw his brother David, who was 13 years old, get into appellant’s car and duck down as the car was driven into the street. A little later he saw him raise up and get into the seat. Roger met up with a companion and the two followed appellant’s car until they met a third boy and the three went to the police station. This third boy, one Gary -, testified that on the morning in question he saw appellant on a street talking to the brothers, saw him talking to Roger in appellant’s car, and walked up to the car. He heard appellant say something about a job. He heard Roger ask appellant if he could be let in on it and heard appellant reply “No, this is only a job for one.” After the three boys went to the police station Gary and Roger got into another boy’s car and went searching for David and appellant. They failed to find the two and again returned to the police station. Then Gary, the boy with the car and the third boy took up the search again and met appellant with David coming down the road from the direction of appellant’s cabin. They shouted at appellant to stop but he kept going, whereupon the boys turned about and followed. Appellant increased his speed until he was stopped by an officer.

*662 Appellant testified that he had a number of guns in his cabin and some had been taken by someone who broke into the house. He formed an opinion that the guilty parties were a group of boys in town. He complained to the authorities about the burglary and when their investigations proved fruitless he hit upon a plan of getting one of the suspected group alone, taking him to the cabin where the burglary had taken place and by talking with him there gain information as to who had stolen the guns. He said he talked first to Roger, offering him a job and proposing that Roger accompany him, but that Roger would not go. He then talked to David, again offering a job, and David got in his car and they proceeded to appellant’s cabin. There he showed David the remaining guns and talked to him for some time but failed to get any information and started to take him home after giving him a dollar for the time he had spent. He denied the commission of the crime charged.

David testified that appellant approached him on the street and asked him if he would “like to make a few easy dollars,” that David replied he would and appellant asked him to follow him down to his car and get in; that appellant told him to duck down behind the front seat, which he did, and appellant drove a short distance and then told David to get up; that they then went to appellant’s cabin; that when they were in the cabin appellant locked the door; that appellant had been drinking; that appellant showed him some guns; that after a time he told David that he wanted David to be his little boy; that David said he didn’t want to; that appellant then told David that he (David) was going to commit fellatio on appellant; that appellant got upon a bed and exposed himself, then put one hand on David’s head and one on the back of his neck and pushed him down to his knees and told him he had to proceed with the act. This the boy did. He stopped and was told to go ahead, started again, stopped again and protested it was making him sick; that appellant then told him he didn’t know it would make him sick; that the two then left the cabin; that appellant gave him a dollar which he did not want to take, but upon appellant’s insistence he did take it; that the two got in appellant’s car and started to go back to town; that they met the other boys who honked the horn and shouted at them; that after appellant had passed without stopping the boys turned around and chased appellant’s car; that appellant speeded up and when he got to the bottom of a hill an officer’s car was there; *663 that appellant slowed down as he passed the officer and told David to tell the officer that he was a hitch-hiker; that the officer stopped appellant.

Appellant contends first that David was an accomplice and that his testimony is not sufficiently corroborated. He also claims that the district attorney was guilty of misconduct.

The trial court submitted the issue of David’s accomplieity to the jury as a question of fact. By its verdict the jury impliedly found that he was not an accomplice. We think the action of the trial court was correct and that the evidence supports the jury’s finding. The boy was asked on cross-examination if he knew that the act he did was wrong and he replied that he did. Nevertheless, the issue is not concluded by that testimony. The jury could have found that David did not participate willingly and that he assented rather than consented to participate in the crime. Such a finding is supported by the related evidence, particularly by the following facts as testified to by him; He went with appellant at the appellant’s suggestion and through his connivance in that he was offered money without an explanation as to what he was to do for it except that thereby he would earn a few “easy” dollars. He was 13 years of age, whereas appellant was a man many years his senior. Appellant took him out of town and into his cabin, the nearest residence being several hundred feet distant. On entering the cabin the appellant locked the door. David’s attention was called to the presence of several guns in the cabin. He was told by appellant to perform the act. Appellant prepared his body for the act, pushed David to his knees, and told the boy he had to go ahead. It is a fair conclusion that there was here nothing of willing participation or participation motivated by the intent to satisfy the boy’s own sexual desires and throughout the actual copulation there was no release from the appellant’s dominance, although the boy’s unwillingness and reluctance was clearly manifested, until he convinced the appellant that he was being made ill by continuing. The jury could have found that the boy was acting under the dominance of the appellant after being taken to what amounted to a place of isolation and being locked into the cabin with appellant.

“. . . [T]here is a decided difference in law between mere submission and actual consent.

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Bluebook (online)
313 P.2d 579, 152 Cal. App. 2d 660, 1957 Cal. App. LEXIS 1945, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-claasen-calctapp-1957.