State v. Walton

1925 OK CR 290, 236 P. 629, 30 Okla. Crim. 416, 1925 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 281
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 3, 1925
DocketNo. A-5165.
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 1925 OK CR 290 (State v. Walton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Walton, 1925 OK CR 290, 236 P. 629, 30 Okla. Crim. 416, 1925 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 281 (Okla. Ct. App. 1925).

Opinion

*418 DOYLE, J.

On the 10th day of April, 1924, the county attorney of Oklahoma County filed in the district court of said county five informations, each charging J. C. Walton with a violation of section 1662, C. S. 1921, which provides:

“That any state officer, deputy or employee of such state officer, who shall divert any money appropriated by law from the purpose and object of such appropriation, shall be deemed guilty of a felony and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment in the state penitentiary for a period of not less than one year nor more than ten years.”

It is alleged in substance in each information that the Eighth Legislature of the State of Oklahoma duly appropriated $15,000 as a contingent fund to be expended under the direction of the Commissioner of Health of the State of Oklahoma for the purpose of preventing and curing venereal diseases, and that said J. C. Walton then and there being Governor of the State of Oklahoma, acting together with A. E. Davenport, the Commissioner of Health of the State of Oklahoma, and with one T. P. Edwards, did unlawfully, wrongfully, and feloniously divert $200 of the said $15,000 from the purpose and object of its appropriation in payment of the salary of the said T. P. Edwards, as a personal and private employee of the said J. C. Walton, and that the said T. P. Edwards was not then and there engaged in performing any duties for the Health Department of the State of Oklahoma.

Each of said informations charged the said defendant in the same language, except that the date on which such diversions are alleged to have occurred is different; the same being for a month’s salary in each instance.

To each of these informations the defendant interposed a demurrer, on the statutory grounds.

Thereafter on the 18th day of April, 1924, before A. S. Wells, one of the district judges of the state of Oklahoma, *419 who at that time was holding court by assignment of the Chief Justice in Oklahoma County, the demurrers coming on to be heard, were by the court sustained.

The journal entry of judgment was on the same day prepared, signed, and filed with the court clerk by Judge Wells, the material part of which is as follows:

“This matter comes on for hearing on this the 18th day of April, 1924, on the demurrers to the informations filed herein. The state is represented by J. K. Wright, county attorney, and the defendant is represented by Warren K. Snyder, and after the argument is heard and the court has been duly advised in the premises.
“The court finds as a matter of law that the defendant, J. O. Walton, who is prosecuted alone in these cases, cannot himself divert those funds, and the court is of the opinion that the informations do not charge a crime against J. C. Walton in simply alleging that he conjointly diverted these funds with Davenport and Edwards. The court is of the opinion, however, that if the informations charged Davenport with the diversion of the funds, and in addition to that charged J. C. Walton with aiding and abetting in the diversion of those funds, and then set out the acts and nature of his acts by which he aided and abetted, that they would state a crime against J. C. Walton. That not being true in these cases, and the information simply saying that J. C. Walton diverted the funds acting conjointly with Davenport, it is the opinion of the court that the informa-tions fail to state facts sufficient to constitute a crime upon the part of J. C. Walton against the state of Oklahoma, and for that reason the demurrers to the informations are sustained.
“To the ruling of the court sustaining the demurrers the county attorney duly excepts and objects, and his exceptions and objections are allowed. Then the county attorney gives notice in open court of his intention to elect to stand on the demurrers, and gives notice in open court of his intention to appeal the matter to the Criminal Court of Appeals of the State of Oklahoma, and asks that he be given ten, five, and two days to prepare the record, suggest *420 amendments, and settle the record that it may be filed in the Criminal Court of Appeals, and said time is allowed.
“A. S. Wells, Judge.
“Filed in district court Oklahoma County, Okla., April 18, 1924. Cliff Myers, Court Clerk, by Carl Traub, Deputy.”

A duplicate copy of said journal entry was delivered to Hon. Warren K. Snyder, counsel for the defendant. Thereafter on April 21, 1924, Judge Wells received through the mail at Lawton another journal entry, which he signed and returned to the county attorney of Oklahoma county, which journal entry contained the following recital:

“The court is of opinion that the objection to these in-formations can be avoided in new informations, and the county attorney is hereby directed to continue prosecution by filing new informations in this case in accordance with the views herein expressed.”

It appears that the original journal entry was withdrawn, and the journal .entry signed at Lawton, Comanche county, was substituted and filed with the court clerk of Oklahoma county.

The state appealed from the judgment sustaining the demurrers by filing in this court a petition in error with a duly certified transcript of the record attached.

Counsel for defendant in error filed a motion to correct the transcript to speak the truth, on the ground that the journal entry of judgment set forth in the transcript of the record, marked filed April 18,1924, was in fact signed at Lawton on April 21, and tendered for filing in Oklahoma City April 21, 1924, or later, and that the same bears a false and fictitious filing date; that Hon. A. S. Wells, judge of the Sixteenth judicial district, by order of the Chief Justice was assigned to hold court in Oklahoma county for the period of one week, beginning April 18, 1924, and his time for holding court in Oklahoma County expired midnight, Saturday, April 19, 1924; and that the journal entry of *421 judgment made and signed while he was in Oklahoma county on the 18th day of April, 1924, was removed from the files by the court clerk, and the journal entry which was signed by him on the 21st day of April, 1924, at Lawton, was substituted therefor. Which motion for permission to correct the transcript was by this court allowed.

Thereafter, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court assigned the said A. S. Wells, district judge, to sit and hold court in Oklahoma county to hear the application of the defendant to correct said transcript. Upon which hearing it appears without dispute that the facts as to the signing and filing of the two journal entries of judgment are as heretofore stated.

Thereafter the defendant in error filed a motion to dismiss the state’s appeal herein on the ground that the judgment pronounced sustaining the demurrers to said informa-tions as shown by the record, including the minutes of the court and the original journal entry of judgment, did not contain any order directing or authorizing the county attorney to file new informations in said cases.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1925 OK CR 290, 236 P. 629, 30 Okla. Crim. 416, 1925 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 281, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-walton-oklacrimapp-1925.