People v. . Harvey

139 N.E. 268, 235 N.Y. 282, 40 N.Y. Crim. 297, 1923 N.Y. LEXIS 1179
CourtNew York Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 20, 1923
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 139 N.E. 268 (People v. . Harvey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. . Harvey, 139 N.E. 268, 235 N.Y. 282, 40 N.Y. Crim. 297, 1923 N.Y. LEXIS 1179 (N.Y. 1923).

Opinion

*299 Crane, J.:

At a term of the Supreme Court held in and for the county of Nassau in June of 1921, the defendant was convicted of the crime of bribery, and sentenced to state prison. The judgment of conviction was affirmed by the Appellate Division for the second department, two of the justices dissenting, the presiding justice granting to the defendant a certificate of reasonable doubt, pending his appeal to this court, on the ground that certain evidence was improperly admitted.

The witnesses against the defendant were Matthew J. O’Neill, a hackman by trade, previously convicted of crime; William Gr. Hoffman, who gave his business as selling stolen automobiles, in jail awaiting trial for crime; Salvator Salano, in the taxi business, in jail awaiting sentence for crime; Aubrey Pettit, who had pleaded guilty to receiving stolen goods; and Carman Plant, said to be a county detective connected with the district attorney’s office in Nassau county, who also pleaded guilty to the crime of receiving stolen goods, and was awaiting his sentence.

Herbert S. Harvey, the defendant .in this case, had been sheriff of Queens county and is referred to on the trial as the sheriff, or the old sheriff. He was charged by these witnesses with having paid to Plant, the county detective, the sum of $200, as promised, for having caused the release of O’Neill from a charge of stealing an automobile made against him in the Magistrate’s Court of the village of Freeport.

The testimony was to the effect that O’Neill had been arrested on a warrant issued out of this Magistrate’s Court, had been arraigned and admitted to bail, pending the hearing, in,the sum of $500. Plant had been present in court representing the district attorney’s office. Shortly thereafter O’Neill says that he met Harvey at the Belmont Park race track and told him that he was in trouble in Nassau county, over a stolen Ford car. He asked Harvey if he could help him, if he knew Plant. Harvey told the witness to meet him that evening at Tange *300 man’s Hotel at Flushing and he would let him know. They met as arranged, and O’Neill testifies that Harvey then said: “ It will cost you $200, and you will he dismissed in the Justice of the Peace Court in Freeport. So I wanted to pay the $200 right there, and the sheriff said, ‘ No, it is not necessary. After you are dismissed you come down here and pay it.’ ” A few .days thereafter at the hearing in the Magistrate’s Court, O’Neill was discharged. The following night he went to Flushing with Hoffman where he met the sheriff at the hotel and gave him the $200.

Hoffman, who was with O’Neill on this occasion, swears that Harvey was paid the $200 in his presence; that he saw O’Neill count out the money and Harvey accept it. Salano supports these other two witnesses by saying that he was introduced to Harvey by O’Neill and Hoffman in Tangeman’s Hotel and that Harvey said: “ You are the man that has to give me $10Q. So I said, I don’t know. If I have to I will give it to you.’ Well,’ he says, That is what these boys have done. They have got to pay $300 or $200, whatever it was, see.’ I didn’t know, so I gave the $100 to Hoffman, and Hoffman passed it to Mr. Harvey.” From the testimony of these three men it further appears that they made a business of procuring and selling stolen automobiles. Aubrey Pettit testified in support of the story detailed by the above witnesses that he met Harvey at the Belmont Park race track and had this conversation: “ Mr. Harvey come over to me and asked me if I knew Carman Plant. I said I did. He said Carman Plant has agreed to get that young fellow standing alongside of him off. He has got a case coming up against him in Freeport. I said, I guess if he told . you he could get him off, he will.’ That was about all the conversation, as near as I can remember. ’’ Continuing he says: “ I met Mr. Harvey possibly a week later at the Aqueduct, Queens County Jockey Club meeting, and he told me the next time I went to the city to stop in, he wanted to see me. .1 did. I stopped in. in possibly two or three days. I don’t exactly *301 remember. I stopped in at Tom Tangemah’s restaurant at Flushing. * * * And after possibly we might have had a drink, I don’t know, he gave me $200 and he said, Give this to Carman Plant.’ I did give it to Carman Plant the next day.”

The last witness for the People was Carman Plant, the county detective, so called. He swears to having met Harvey at the race track, as detailed by the other witnesses and says that the following conversation took place: “ He said ‘ I understand you have a friend of mine in trouble with an automobile over in Freeport.’- I asked him if he meant O’Neill. He said yes. He wanted to know what I had done. I told him what we had done. O’Neill had showed a bill of sale to a fellow by the name of Griffiths, out around Port Washington, and I went down different places to see if I could find him, and could not find any such man, and I had been out on two different nights. I asked him what kind of a fellow O’Neill was. He said O’Neill was all right. "" "x" * He said, Well if you can attend there on the 16th, at the court room in Freeport, and tell them what you told me I will get $200 and make you a present of it from O’Neill.’ ”

After this conversation Carman appeared in the police court on adjourned day and told the police magistrate that he thought O’Neill had been fooled, and that the district attorney wanted the case dismissed, so that he could use O’Neill to try to get the thief. O’Neill was discharged. What Plant told the magistrate was not true. The district attorney had given no instructions to have O’Neill discharged.

To meet all this testimony, Harvey, the defendant, introduced evidence of his previous good character and standing in Flushing, where he lived, but did not take the stand himself.

The charge of the court was quite full and complete, covering all points necessary in a case like this. The justice charged the jury that the witnesses implicated in this charge were accomplices upon whose testimony alone the defendant could not be *302 convicted. He left it to the jury to say whether or not Pettit and Salano were accomplices, and if the jury found that they were not, then it was for them to say whether the testimony of these two men corroborated the accomplices by tending to connect the defendant with the crime.

I have given this brief outline of the evidence against the defendant and of the trial for the purpose of showing that the testimony furnished by the prosecution, if true, and applied in accordance with the judge’s charge, made out a case of bribery against the defendant. The jury, however, were to decide whether the testimony were true.

Section 378 of the Penal Law defining bribery says that a person who gives or offers a bribe or any money to a person executing any of the functions of a public officer with intent to influence him with respect to any act, decision, vote or other proceeding, in the exercise of his functions, is punishable by imprisonment for not more than ten years.

If Harvey offered to give Plant $200 to ease up on O’Heill and procure his discharge, or promised to give him such sum, he was guilty of the crime of bribery, as stated in this section.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
139 N.E. 268, 235 N.Y. 282, 40 N.Y. Crim. 297, 1923 N.Y. LEXIS 1179, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-harvey-ny-1923.