People v. Page

Citations

• 116 Cal. 386
• 48 P. 326
• 1897 Cal. LEXIS 559

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law—Embezzlement by Guardian—Sufficiency of Indictment—Particulars of Guardianship.—An indictment for embezzlement which after stating the jurisdictional facts charges that, at a specified date, the defendant “being intrusted with and having in his control” a specified sum of money, “as guardian, trustee, and agent” of an insane person named, “for the use and benefit” of said insane person, and being his “property,” did, at a specified time and place, “willfully, unlawfully, feloniously, and fraudulently embezzle, convert, and appropriate the same to his own use,”is sufficient to meet the requirements of section 506 of the Penal Code defining the offense, and also of section 950 of the Penal Code, requiring the indictment to state “the acts constituting the offense in ordinary and concise language, and in such manner as to enable a person of common understanding to know what is intended”; and it is not necessary that the indictment should allege the particulars in regard to the appointment of the defendant as guardian, or in regard to the proceedings in the matter of the guardianship.</p> <p>Id.—Motion to Set Aside Indictment — Testimony of Defendant before Grand Jury — Failure to Indorse Name. — Where there is nothing in the record to show that the appearance of the defendant as a witness before the grand jury was not voluntary, or that he did not voluntarily give all the evidence elicited from him by the grand jury, it is not ground for a motion to set aside the indictment that the defendant “ testified before said body, he not then and there being informed of his legal rights as a defendant witness, and that his name does not appear among the names of witnesses upon said indictment. ”</p> <p>Id.—Notice from Grand Jury not Required—Attorney—Presumption of Knowledge.—It is not made the duty of the foreman or any member of the grand jury to notify a defendant who appears before it as a witness of his right to counsel before testifying; and where the defe