People v. Darcy

139 P.2d 118, 59 Cal. App. 2d 342, 1943 Cal. App. LEXIS 325
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 25, 1943
DocketCrim. 2212
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 139 P.2d 118 (People v. Darcy) 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. Darcy, 139 P.2d 118, 59 Cal. App. 2d 342, 1943 Cal. App. LEXIS 325 (Cal. Ct. App. 1943).

Opinions

[345]*345WARD, J.

Appellant was indicted, tried by a jury and convicted of perjury. The indictment contains one count which alleges in substance that on March 27, 1934, in an affidavit of registration as an elector he stated under oath before a deputy registrar of voters authorized to administer oaths in the department of elections at San Francisco that his name was “Sam Darcy” and his place of birth “New York,” whereas his true name is Samuel Dardeek or Samuel Adams Dardeck and his place of birth Ukraine, Russia.

-A demurrer and supplement to demurrer to the indictment were overruled; a motion to dismiss the indictment and a motion to quash the same were dismissed, and a challenge to the jury panel was disallowed. Upon the return of the verdict, motions in arrest of judgment and for a new trial were made and denied, whereupon a motion for probation was made and granted, and the pronouncement of judgment suspended.

Appellant did not testify in his own behalf. However, as appears from testimony given by him before the Immigration and Naturalization Service at Ellis Island, New York, he was born in Orinion, Russia, and given the name of Srool Adam Dardeek. With his brothers and sisters he was brought to the United States by his mother, his father having emigrated to this country a year earlier. The latter secured naturalization and it is by reason of this fact that appellant as a minor child acquired his citizenship. He was married in New York in 1926 under the name of Samuel Adams Darcy; in 1927 he remarried his wife in Chicago under the name of Samuel Adams Dardeek. In the same year, he applied for passports to Europe for himself and his wife whom he stated he “married on May 13, 1927,” his application stating under oath that his name was Samuel Adams Dardeek and that he had been born in Russia. In 1932 in connection with an interview with an inspector of the police department of Long Beach to establish his identity, he signed the name of Sam Darcy to a written statement that he was born in New York. Affidavits, also, made by him in 1931, 1932 and 1934 before the registrar of voters in San Francisco gave his name as Samuel Adams Darcy, Samuel Darcy and Sam Darcy, respectively, and his birthplace as New York. In 1934, also, he filed under oath a declaration of candidacy for the office of governor of this state. Among other things he stated in the declaration that he had been a resident of this state for eight and a half years. In 1935, he again applied for a passport to Europe, [346]*346Ms application referring to the 1927 passport and giving his birthplace as Ukraine, Russia. Also, in 1935, he testified before the naturalization and immigration service that his name was Samuel Adams Darcy; that he was known in California as Sam Darcy and Samuel Adams Darcy; that his address at the time was Jersey City and that he had used this address for several years for personal business, but he was a registered voter in San Francisco. At this time he again gave his birthplace as Ukraine, Russia.

At about the time of the filing of the indictment against appellant by the grand jury, he left this state and went to the State of Pennsylvania, where, on September 19, 1939, he was apprehended and extradition proceedings instituted against him. He resisted these proceedings by resort to the federal courts, without success, and was returned to this state to stand trial.

At his trial he exercised his legal right not to testify. Evidence offered and received on his behalf tended to prove that during his several years residence in this state he commonly used and was known by the name of Sam Darcy; that he followed the calling of journalist and political writer, advocating the principles of the communist party, and was on one occasion the candidate of that party for the office of mayor of San Francisco, and on another, as stated, for that of governor of the state. It is not contended that he used that name for any fraudulent purpose.

Appellant urges various grounds for reversal, namely (1) that the indictment fails to charge the offense of perjury inasmuch as the alleged false statements were immaterial to the proceeding in which they were made; (2) that the making of them was not legally proven, since the record disclosed no willfulness or criminal intent, and was not established by the testimony of two witnesses, or of one witness and proof of corroborating circumstances; (3) that the prosecution failed to confront the appellant' with necessary witnesses, namely, his father (whose record of naturalization was used to establish appellant’s birth in Russia), and the deputy registrar in San Francisco (before whom the alleged false statements were made—and who at the time of the trial was no longer living) ; (4) the erroneous admission or exclusion of evidence, and (5) that by his prosecution and conviction he was denied the equal protection of the law.

The appeal purports to be taken from the judgment [347]*347and the order denying the motion for a new trial; it is treated and referred to in the briefs of appellant as an appeal from the verdict. It is not in fact such. (People v. Allen, 19 Cal.App.2d 301 [65 P.2d 382]; People v. Boles, 35 Cal.App.2d 461 [95 P.2d 949] ; People v. Richardson, 23 Cal.App.2d 428 [73 P.2d 610]; People v. Arrangoiz, 24 Cal.App.2d 116 [74 P.2d 789].) Judgment was not pronounced; it was suspended, and the defendant on his motion placed on probation. Under such circumstances, it is not necessary to consider the appeal as applying to a judgment or verdict (In re Phillips, 17 Cal.2d 55 [109 P.2d 344]; People v. Marconi, 118 Cal.App. 683 [5 P.2d 974]); the appeal from the order denying appellant’s motion for a new trial remains unaffected. (Penal Code, sec. 1237; People v. Johnston, 37 Cal.App.2d 606 [100 P.2d 307].) An attack upon an indictment, or alleged irregularities occurring before issue of fact joined by plea are not properly matters to be determined on an appeal from an order denying a motion for a new trial. (People v. Duncan, 50 Cal.App.2d 184 [122 P.2d 587]; People v. Turner, 39 Cal. 370), but lack of jurisdiction if disclosed by the pleadings may be raised at any time. The indictment on its face shows the jurisdiction of the court over the defendant for the alleged offense. Any objections relative to extradition proceedings or to the sufficiency of the indictment, upon the ground that certain alleged false statements were immaterial, etc., may not, in view of the necessity of dismissing the appeal from the purported judgment, be considered as an attack upon the indictment. However, the materiality of the alleged statements as presented in evidence will be considered.

The falsity of evidence upon which it is sought to establish perjury must be proved by two witnesses, or by one witness and corroborating circumstances. (Pen. Code, sec. 1103a.) The affidavit containing the perjurious matter was introduced through a deputy registrar of voters. The particular officer who administered the oath to appellant was no longer living at the time of the trial.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
139 P.2d 118, 59 Cal. App. 2d 342, 1943 Cal. App. LEXIS 325, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-darcy-calctapp-1943.