People v. Miller

246 N.W. 678, 261 Mich. 598, 1933 Mich. LEXIS 813
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 10, 1933
DocketDocket No. 218, Calendar No. 36,532.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 246 N.W. 678 (People v. Miller) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Miller, 246 N.W. 678, 261 Mich. 598, 1933 Mich. LEXIS 813 (Mich. 1933).

Opinion

Potter, J.

The Federal Bond & Mortgage Company, Inc., a corporation, was engaged in business in Detroit. It became involved in financial difficulties. On petition of the prosecuting attorney of Ingham county, a so-called one-man grand jury was ordered to conduct an investigation in regard to the activities of the Federal Bond & Mortgage Company, Inc., and Allied Properties Corporation, *their officers, directors, and agents, during the past several years, within the said county of Ingham, and all circumstances directly or indirectly related thereto. Defendant was called, sworn, and testified as a witness before the one-man grand jury, called in pursuance of this order, and subsequently was arrested and informed against for perjury, convicted on trial, and appeals, claiming the information filed against him should have been quashed, the court should have required the prosecuting attorney to furnish a bill of particulars, a change of venue should have been granted; that the court excluded competent, relevant, and material testimony; the prosecuting attorney’s argument to the jury was prejudicial; the court erred in his charge to the jury; verdict should have been directed for defendant; and after conviction he should have been granted a new trial. The testimony of defendant before the one-man grand jury occupies more than 150 pages of the printed record and covers many subjects. The information filed charged:

“The said Peter A. Miller did then and there wilfully swear falsely in regard to certain material matters respecting which said oath was authorized *600 and required, he, the said Peter A. Miller well knowing said testimony to be false and untrue, the said material facts to which he testified falsely being in substance as follows: that he, the said Peter A. Miller, did not receive the sum of $7,500 as a consideration from the Federal Bond & Mortgage Company, Inc., nor from any of its officers or agents, it being then and there material in said, inquiry whether in truth and in fact he, the said Peter A. Miller did receive the said sum of $7,500 from the Federal Bond & Mortgage Company, Inc., or from any of its officers or agents, and by reason of the premises aforesaid, the said Peter A. Miller did then and there commit perjury during the said investigation.”

It is not claimed by the people defendant was ever a stockholder in the Federal Bond & Mortgage Company, Inc., an officer therein, or an employee thereof. The one-man grand jury proceeding was conducted by circuit judge Carr, who, upon its conclusion, filed a written report criticizing the actions of the Federal Bond & Mortgage Company, Inc., in the issuance and sale of bonds secured by mortgage upon real estate, whose value was inflated by appraisal; the issuance and sale of bonds not approved by the securities commission, the lack of a law providing for the formation and supervision by State authority of bondholders’ committees, and the sale by an employee of the Federal Bond & Mortgage Company, Inc., of unapproved securities in Ingham county—

“Aside from these instances it does not appear that there has been, within the limits of Ingham county, any violation of the laws of this State in connection with the issuance and sale of the securities in question.”

*601 The prosecuting attorney, in his closing argument to the jury, said:

“As long as the matter has been raised in that particular form, I think I have this to say about this investigation. I think I have -this right to ask this jury to infer between the lines in this entire matter and I am going to ask you members of the jury now if there is a single one on this panel irrespective of what may be the argument of this prosecution, so far as the guilt or innocence of Peter Miller, the respondent, is concerned, if there is a single individual juror on this panel who thinks the prosecution, prosecution of perjury in connection with the secret investigation called this summer on the order of Judge Leland W. Carr, of this circuit, I ask again if there is a single member on this panel who thinks this prosecution for perjury was started without the approval and authority and recommendation and consent of the circuit judge who conducted this investigation?”

The argument of the prosecuting attorney was more than a commendable flight of'fancy. It was not based upon the record. There was nothing to indicate Judge Carr ordered, directed, instructed, or approved the prosecution of defendant. Nothing to show he took any action in relation to the one-man grand jury proceedings, except those indicated by his findings. The argument of the prosecuting attorney was erroneous and prejudicial to defendant.

Upon his arraignment upon the information filed against him, defendant made a motion to quash and a demand for a bill of particulars, which motion and demand were denied by the trial court. The case was tried, and the testimony of defendant given on the grand jury investigation was read by .the *602 stenographer who had taken the testimony in snch one-man grand jury proceedings. In his closing argument, the prosecuting* attorney said:

“The charge of perjury in this case is based upon the entire record of this witness’ testimony. So we get down to this. This is the determining factor in this case and there isn’t any question but what a careful reading* of this transcript, a careful remembering what Rudolph Loomis put into the record when reading his personal notes will show that all the way through from or for or anything else notwithstanding, this respondent, Miller, in his grand-jury investigation testimony said ‘I got that $7,500 as payment for services as attorney from the Frankels and that I did not get it from the Federal Bond & Mortgage Company nor from any of its officers or any of its agents, that was for killing my committee or for ceasing my activities against the organization or officers of that company.’ You have got the two things right there analyzed. If he got this money as the record shows, that is, if the record shows he got the money as services for attorney for the Frankels, we will put it that way for the defense, if the record shows the testimony given at that investigation was he was getting this $7,500 for ceasing his activities against the Federal Bond & Mortgage Company, and calling* off his committee, then I say that is the thing he is charged with. It is on the basis of that the prosecution is asking a verdict in this case, so what we want to do in just two or three minutes, if we can, is to see if he got that money as services as attorney for the Frankels or whether he got that money out of a black-mail scheme for killing his committee and that sort of thing. ’ ’

Apparently from his closing argument to the jury the prosecuting, attorney was claiming Miller was *603 guilty of perjury when he testified he g’ot $7,500 as payment for services as attorney for the Frankels, when as a matter of fact he got it from the Federal Bond & Mortgage Company, Inc.; was guilty of perjury in testifying he did not receive the $7,500 for the purpose of ceasing his activities against the Federal Bond & Mortgage Company, Inc.; and in indicating jbe got the $7,500 as services as attorney for the Frankels.

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Related

State v. Wallis
311 P.2d 659 (Washington Supreme Court, 1957)

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Bluebook (online)
246 N.W. 678, 261 Mich. 598, 1933 Mich. LEXIS 813, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-miller-mich-1933.