Loehr v. People

Citations

• 132 Ill. 504
• 24 N.E. 68
• 1890 Ill. LEXIS 1064

Syllabus

<p>1. Criminal law—of the indictment—general requisites—the statute considered. Section 468 of the Criminal Code, to the effect that an indictment shall be deemed sufficiently technical and correct which states the offense in the terms and language of the statute, etc., is not limited to the Criminal Code as it existed when the section was passed, but is a general rule of criminal pleading, applicable to all cases within its terms, without regard to the date of the enactment of the statute under which the case may arise.</p> <p>2. Same—indictment—for defacing and altering a tax collector's book —sufficiency. An indictment under section 228 of the Criminal Code alleged that the defendant, on, etc., at, etc., a certain book, to-wit, the-collector’s book of B. township, M. county, Illinois, for the taxes of the year 1888, in the office of the county treasurer of M. county, State of Illinois, then and there, feloniously, willfully and maliciously, did deface and alter. A motion to quash was made, for the reason that the indictment failed to set out the facts constituting the defacing and alteration, which the court overruled: Held, that the indictment was sufficient to apprise the defendant, with reasonable certainty, of the nature of the charge.</p> <p>3. An indictment for the corrupt and willful alteration of a collector’s book for taxes is sufficient if it charges the offense in the language of the statute creating the same, or states the offense so plainly that the nature of the offense charged may be easily understood by the jury.</p> <p>4. Same—pleading and evidence—proof of immaterial averment—as to place of keeping the tax book. An indictment of a township collector of taxes and his deputy for feloniously altering, defacing and falsifying the collector’s book, containing the taxes of the preceding year ordered to be collected, described the same as the collector’s book of the proper township, and then averred that such book belonged to the Office of the county t