State v. Govan

123 N.W.2d 110, 1963 N.D. LEXIS 106
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 22, 1963
DocketCr. 310
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 123 N.W.2d 110 (State v. Govan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Govan, 123 N.W.2d 110, 1963 N.D. LEXIS 106 (N.D. 1963).

Opinion

BURKE, Judge.

The defendant was convicted in the District Court of Ward County of the crime of receiving the proceeds or earnings of a woman engaged in prostitution. He has appealed from the judgment of conviction.

It appears from the record that defendant is the owner of a home located in rural Ward County. The home is a two-story structure with ordinary living and service rooms upon the ground floor and four bedrooms and a bath on the second floor. On June 27, 1962 at about two o’clock a. m. a group of eight police officers and an Assistant Attorney General arrived at this home armed with what is designated a “health order.” Neither this order nor the showing upon which it was issued are in evidence but the testimony indicates that *112 the order directed the officers to take one Aritha Robinson, a resident in the house, into custody for a physical examination. The group of officers entered the house, uninvited, by opening an unlocked door. Immediately upon entering, some of the officers rushed upstairs and again without invitation entered the bedroom of Aritha Robinson. There they found Aritha Robinson and a male person in circumstances which clearly indicated that the crime of assignation, as defined by statute, had been committed. Aritha Robinson was immediately placed under arrest upon such charge. According to the officers’ testimony she freely admitted the commission of the crime and told them that she divided the proceeds of her prostitution with the defendant. She also told them that she placed the money she received behind a certain picture in the defendant’s room. The officers then searched defendant’s room and found $20.00 in currency behind the described picture. The defendant was not present at any time while the officers were at his home.

On June 2, 1962, Aritha Robinson pleaded guilty to the crime of assignation and was sentenced to a year in the county jail. Thereafter the defendant was charged with the crime of receiving the proceeds or earnings, in whole or in part, of a woman engaged in prostitution. The principal witness against the defendant was Aritha Robinson. At his trial she testified that she came to Minot at defendant’s request for the purpose of engaging in prostitution at his house. In exchange for providing her with board and a place to conduct her business defendant was to receive 50 percent of her receipts. She stated a settlement had been made once a week and that she had paid defendant his share each week according to agreement.

Defendant testified in his own behalf. He stated that Aritha Robinson came to his home, told him that she was to marry a soldier who would soon be returning to the Minot Air Force Base and requested a place to live until the soldier arrived and they could be married. He said he knew that Aritha Robinson had been a prostitute and that he told her that she could stay at his home for $15.00 a week if she would keep the place clean and not engage in prostitution. Defendant owned and operated a restaurant in Minot which was known as “The Grill.” It was open from eleven o’clock a. m. until two or three o’clock a. m. When defendant was asked, “Did Miss Robinson give to you any money, no matter how little, as a part or portion of her earnings from prostitution? He replied, “Well, she paid me her rent. If it came from prostitution I didn’t know where it came from.”

Upon this appeal there are eighteen specifications of error. Ten of them relate to the instructions given or to the failure to give proper instructions. Eight relate to claimed error in the reception of evidence.

The first challenged instruction we shall consider is as follows:

“Accordingly, if the State has established to your satisfaction, beyond a reasonable doubt; (1) that Aritha Robinson on or about the 25th day of May, 1962, to on or about the 27th day of June 1962, was a woman engaged in prostitution and; (2) that the Defendant, Dee Dee Govan, on or about the 25th day of May, 1962 to on or about the 27th day of June, 1962, in Ward County, North Dakota, knowingly accepted or received in whole or in part, revenue from the proceeds or earnings of said Ari-tha Robinson, then it is your duty to find the Defendant guilty of the crime of Receiving the Proceeds of Prostitution.” The trial judge defined prostitution as follows:

“Subsection 2 of Section 12-22-15 of the North Dakota Century Code defines ‘prostitution’ as follows: ‘Prostitution shall include the offer or receiving of the body for sexual intercourse for hire, and the offer or receiving of the body for indiscriminate sexual intercourse without hire.’ ”

*113 The statute under which the defendant was charged is as follows:

“Any person who knowingly shall accept or receive in whole or in part support or maintenance or revenue from the proceeds or earnings of any woman engaged in prostitution, is guilty of a felony * * (Sec. 12-22-22 NDCC)

It is thus clear that the trial judge defined the crime charged, and the quantum of proof necessary to convict, substantially in the language of the statutes. Ordinarily a definition of a crime in the language of the statute is sufficient. 23A C.J.S. Criminal Law § 1194, page 496. It would have been so in this case had the jury also been instructed upon the nature and the elements of the defense. Except for a reference to the fact that defendant pleaded not guilty to the information, there is no mention in the instructions of the fact that a defense had been interposed. The defendant admitted that he had received money from the state’s principal witness but he asserted he had received it for a legal consideration and without knowledge that it had been earned by prostitution. The jury was not told that this was a legal defense. Instead they were told that any person who receives revenue from the proceeds or earnings of a woman engaged in prostitution is guilty of a felony. The statute is at best ambiguous. Literally construed, and without adding to it by construction, it could be said that the statute makes it a felony to knowingly receive money from the earnings of a woman engaged in prostitution even if the money was paid for a legal consideration or was earned in a legitimate employment. In this connection we point out that under the definition of prostitution given by the trial judge to the jury, a woman in this state may be engaged in prostitution and still maintain an amateur status. Thus under the instructions, the jury could have found the defendant guilty even if they had believed his testimony.

In State v. Green, 70 N.D. 722, 724, 297 N.W. 783, 785, we construed this statute and said: “It is * * * the acceptance, without consideration, of a portion of the proceeds thus earned” which is made unlawful. Thus two of the essentials of the crime charged are that the money or thing of value received must have been earned in prostitution and that it must have been received without any legal consideration. The failure of the trial judge to include these essentials in his definition of the crime or to make any reference to the defense interposed when that defense admitted the receipt of money but asserted that it was received for a legal consideration and without knowledge that it had been earned in prostitution, was an omission which was calculated to mislead the jury and was prejudicial error. State v. Carter, 50 N.D. 270, 195 N.W. 567.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Muscha v. Krolik
2022 ND 4 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 2022)
State v. Herrick
1999 ND 1 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1999)
State v. Bergeron
326 N.W.2d 684 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1982)
Musgrove v. State
232 A.2d 272 (Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, 1967)
State v. Chaussee
138 N.W.2d 788 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1965)
State v. Manning
134 N.W.2d 91 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1965)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
123 N.W.2d 110, 1963 N.D. LEXIS 106, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-govan-nd-1963.