Reinoehl v. State

87 N.W. 355, 62 Neb. 619, 1901 Neb. LEXIS 259
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 1, 1901
DocketNo. 11,992
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 87 N.W. 355 (Reinoehl v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reinoehl v. State, 87 N.W. 355, 62 Neb. 619, 1901 Neb. LEXIS 259 (Neb. 1901).

Opinion

Holcomb, J.

The defendant below prosecutes in this court error to the district court of Boyd county, wherein he was informed against and convicted of carnally knowing and abusing a female child of the age of about eleven years contrary to [621]*621the provisions of section 12 of the Criminal Code, and sentenced to the penitentiary for the term of seventeen years. Several errors are assigned and argued in brief of counsel for defendant, tbe more important of wbicb will be noted in tbe order of presentation.

It is contended that tbe information upon wbicb tbe defendant was prosecuted is insufficient because it is not alleged that tbe offense charged was with tbe consent of the prosecutrix, it not being charged that tbe act was committed forcibly, and against her will. We bad occasion to pass upon tbe identical question in tbe case of George v. State, 61 Nebr., 669, and there arrived at tbe conclusion that tbe allegation was not essential to a good information. After considering tbe question, and citing a number of authorities, it is observed by the present writer, who prepared tbe opinion of tbe court in that case: “Whether or not tbe prosecutrix consented, being immaterial, it follows that it is unnecessary to allege or prove that tbe act was done with her consent. She is in law regarded as incapable of giving consent to tbe act. • Every element necessary to constitute tbe crime may be established, irrespective of her consent or want thereof.” Tbe views therein expressed appear to us as sound, and consonant with reason and a proper construction of tbe section of tbe statute under wbicb tbe information is drawn. ■

It is next urged that .the conviction can not stand because tbe defendant was put upon bis trial at an adjourned sitting of tbe district court of tbe term which bad not finally terminated at tbe time of tbe preliminary bearing, in view of tbe order of the examining magistrate whereby be was required to give bond for his appearance on the first day of tbe “next term” of tbe district court, and in default of wbicb was committed to the jail of tbe county. Tbe record discloses that the regular term of the district court immediately preceding tbe time- of tbe preliminary bearing convened September 3, 1900, and that at tbe time of tbe healing it bad been adjourned to November 8, 1900. Tbe defendant was arrested on tbe charge of which he was [622]*622convicted and brought before the county judge of Boyd county on November 7, 1900, and waived a preliminary examination, and was, by the county judge, required to enter into a recognizance for his appearance on the first day of the next term of the district court, and, having failed to give the required undertaking, was committed to the jail of the county. On November 8, there was held a session of the district court pursuant to the prior adjournment of the September term, at which time an information was presented against the defendant to which, after the overruling of a demurrer thereto, the defendant pleaded not guilty and the cause proceeded to trial on the general issue on the fourth day of December following. After the jury was impaneled and sworn, the defendant for the first time raised the objection that he could not be tried then and at that term of court because he was required to appear and answer the charge on the first day of the next term, which had not then been called, and because the county attorney had no authority to present and file an information against him until and during the term at which he was required to appear and answer the charge made against him, which it is claimed was the next regular term convened after the preliminary hearing. Assuming, as contended for by defendant’s counsel, that the information was prematurely filed and that the defendant could not be put upon his trial until the next regular term convened after the time of the preliminary hearing, Ave are constrained to the view that the defect or irregularity, if one existed, was waived by the defendant in pleading to the general issue, and that he can not be heard, in the manner attempted, to deny the right and authority of the court to try the cause at the time the trial occurred. If the objection interposed is tenable, — which we do not here deem it incumbent on us to finally determine, — it certainly should have been raised by a motion to quash or plea in abatement, and, having failed to so raise the question, the defendant will be taken and deemed to have waived it. Sec. 444, Criminal Code,

[623]*623It seems reasonably clear that tbe district court had jurisdiction to try the defendant for the crime of which he was accused, and also over his person. If, by order of the magistrate before whom he was taken for preliminary examination, he was not required to appear in the district court to answer the complaint made against him until the next regular term, this was a privilege and right which he could properly waive, and must be held conclusively to have done so if no seasonable objection is interposed to a trial during a sitting of the district court at the adjourned session. He could, did he so desire, waive altogether all the preliminary steps required to be taken before being-tried in the district court on an information made and filed by the county attorney. Coffield v. State, 44 Nebr., 417; Latimer v. State, 55 Nebr., 609; Dinsmore v. State, 61 Nebr., 418. Certainly, if he may waive all the steps which it is his privilege to have followed in the nature of a preliminary inquiry, it follows as a logical deduction that he may waive any defect growing out of such preliminary hearing by which he was brought to a trial in the district court. It may be to a defendant’s advantage to have a speedy trial in the district court at a special or called session, notwithstanding he may have been recognized to appear at some future time, and yet will it be contended that the court is without power to try him at such special term when he consents thereto, and it is his desire to have such speedy trial? In the case at bar the defendant failed to give the required recognizance for his appearance and was committed to the county jail to await trial. The information against Mm was thereafter, and during term time, presented and filed in the district court. No objection was raised against it except a demurrer, which we have held is not well taken, and none to the time or manner of filing. No motion is presented to quash the information because prematurely filed, and before the defendant was required to appear and answer the complaint. No application was made for a continuance of the cause, nor objection made or effort put forth to have the trial [624]*624postponed until the next term, until after the jury had been impaneled and sworn, when, for the first time, it was objected that the defendant could not be put upon his trial until the next regular term to which it is contended he was ordered to appear and answer the charge preferred against him. We have no hesitancy in saying that under such circumstances, whatever may be the. merits of the objection if seasonably interposed, the objection was waived by waiting until the time stated to. present it, and no error was committed by the trial court in overruling “the same.

It is also argued that the court erred in the admission of certain evidence of the prosecutrix regarding prior associations and certain alleged statements and conversations by the defendant to her some three or four months prior to the time of the alleged crime.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
87 N.W. 355, 62 Neb. 619, 1901 Neb. LEXIS 259, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reinoehl-v-state-neb-1901.