The People v. Reiner

170 N.E. 232, 338 Ill. 117
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 21, 1930
DocketNo. 19064. Reversed and remanded.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 170 N.E. 232 (The People v. Reiner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
The People v. Reiner, 170 N.E. 232, 338 Ill. 117 (Ill. 1930).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Dunn

delivered the opinion of the court:

John B. Reiner was convicted in the criminal court of Cook county of an assault upon Jean Johnson with intent to commit a rape, and has sued out a writ of error to reverse the judgment.

The events which were the basis of the charge occurred in the afternoon of August 17, 1927, in the garage of the plaintiff in error, at 5031 Broadway, in Chicago. The front entrance to the garage was on Broadway near Argyle street, and it extended back to an alley, where there was a rear entrance about thirty feet north of Argyle street. Across the alley from the garage was the elevated railroad, and several business places faced the alley, a cigar store, a jewelry store and a pool-room. Broadway and Argyle was a busy corner, where traffic was controlled by traffic signal until four o’clock in the afternoon, when a traffic officer went on duty. The only persons who testified to what occurred in the garage in the afternoon of August 17 were the prosecuting witness, the plaintiff in error and Jonas Wesby.

Jean Johnson testified that she is a married woman, the wife of Dr. D. W. Johnson, a chiropractor. On August 17, between twelve and one o’clock, she went into the garage from the entrance on Broadway to collect for an advertisement which she had previously received from Reiner. As there seemed to be nobody around the garage she walked back, and Reiner came from under a car on which he had apparently been working. When she told him she had come to collect for' his advertisement he invited her into the office, saying he would give her a check. The office was at the back of the garage — “a sort of caged affair.” A desk was next to the wall and back of it was a bench, "on which she sat. Reiner took out a check book and she told him the amount due. He invited her to go to lunch with him and then to have a little drink with him, and she refused both invitations. He put his hand on her knee, and, as she started to get up, put his hands on her shoulders and forced her back on the bench. She screamed immediately, probably three or four times, and struggled with him for nearly a half hour, perhaps longer. He told her it would not do her a particle of good as the garage was almost a block long and he had discharged the colored boy. He bit her neck, leaving a mark which was there for at least three weeks, and bit her knee, drawing blood through the white dress she was wearing. She pleaded with him to stop, but he did not let her go. She finally wrenched herself free and ran out of the garage. She had her purse still in her hands. Her clothes were soiled and greasy and her face dirty, and in that condition she ran to her home, at 4737 Malden avenue, not very far away, and called her husband at his office to come home.

Reiner testified that he went down-town at ten o’clock in the morning of August 17 and did not return until some time after dinner, when he found Mrs. Johnson and Ralph Storey in the garage and the colored boy whom he employed there. He had tried to get Storey to come to court as a witness at the trial and called him on the telephone, but he said he had to go away, as his company was sending him to Wisconsin. Storey was a salesman trying to sell a ticket machine to Reiner. Mrs. Johnson was standing there too. Reiner gave Storey an order for the machine and he went out. She then tried to collect the balance due her, but Reiner told her she was not going to get any money because the blotters for which she was trying to collect were in only a few rooms in the hotel and did Reiner no good. She said she was sorry — she had to have her money. Reiner was there by his desk and behind him were some seats. She sat down there and said, “Don’t be so cross; I want to smoke a cigarette.” She did smoke a cigarette. He did not grab hold of her, did not have his hands on her and did not touch her. At the time she left she said she would get him for this. These things occurred, Reiner testified, the same day Storey, the salesman, was at the garage and the.same day Reiner bought the machine of him. Reiner got a sales slip for the machine and gave Storey a check for $25 on that day. Storey was not present at the trial. Neither the sales slip for the sale of the machine nor the canceled check for $25 was produced.

Mrs. Johnson was called as a witness in rebuttal and was the last witness called on the trial. In her testimony in chief she gave an account of the beginning of her acquaintance with Reiner and of her solicitation of the advertisement from him, for which he was to pay $17.50 and for which he had given her a check for $10 on the tenth of August. After Wesby and Reiner had testified in chief to Storey’s presence in the garage on August 17, Mrs. Johnson in rebuttal testified that she never smoked a cigarette in the office with Reiner on the day that Storey, the salesman, was there with the ticket machine; that it was around lunch time, and a negro man said Reiner probably would not be back for some time and probably they had better go to lunch. Storey said that he was going up the street and would show her where there was a good restaurant. She had lunch with him at the same restaurant and paid for her own lunch. He sat at the same table with her and they returned to the garage. He showed the ticket machine to Reiner and she saw Reiner accept it. A receipt was made out on the register form, which may have been the receipt for the machine. She did not see Reiner pay him any money at that time. That was about August 17, the same day that Storey was there. She never knew Storey before he introduced himself to her while she was standing there.

Jonas Wesby, whom Reiner employed in the garage, testified that he was a general mechanic employed by Reiner working in the garage, cleaning cars and taking care of customers. He knew Mrs. Johnson and saw her around the garage three, four or five times. He saw her on August 17. She came to the garage about ten o’clock in the morning. A salesman named Storey was also there waiting to sell some kind of a machine to keep in the garage. Reiner was not there and they waited for him until about noon. Mrs. Johnson had some kind of a package which she wanted to leave with Reiner and she wanted to see him. She and Storey were talking together but Wesby did not hear what they said. They went out together and each left a package with Wesby. They were gone an hour and a half or two hours and came back together about 1:3o. Reiner had come in and he was going to wait on them. Mrs. Johnson said he should wait on Storey first because she was not in such a hurry, and Reiner did so. This took place in the front part of the garage and later on they walked to the back. After Storey had gone out Mrs. Johnson and Reiner went into the office and stayed there about twenty minutes. There was no screaming. Mrs. Johnson was smoking a cigarette and sitting down, talking to Reiner. After they were there a while they walked down together through the garage side by side, stopped right in the center of the door and were standing there, talking, about twenty minutes, when she went away and Reiner came back and went to work. Wesby was there all the time Mrs. Johnson was. He went home about 2 :00 o’clock or 2:3o that afternoon because he was changing from day work to night work that day. He went home to sleep and came about ten o’clock that night and went to work. The garage was about full of cars that day, people coming for their cars and coming in to buy gas. All the doors and windows in the garage were open and there were people in the cigar store in the alley.

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170 N.E. 232, 338 Ill. 117, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/the-people-v-reiner-ill-1930.