Case ID: okla-crim_24/html/0174-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "DOYLE, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

LENA ISAAH v. STATE.
    No. A-4026.
    Opinion Filed July 26, 1923.
    (216 Pac. 950.)
    (Syllabus.)
    1. Indictment and Information — -When Charging Offense in Language of Statute Insufficient. The information must contain a statement of the acts constituting the offense, and it is not sufficient to charge the offense in the words of the statute, when the particular circumstances of the offense charged are necessary to constitute a complete offense.
    2. Same — Information Charging Keeping Disorderly House. The information charged that defendant did “commit the crime of keeping a disorderly house in the manner and form as follows: That is to say, the defendant did in said county and state, at the above-named time and place, wilfully and unlawfully keep a disorderly house.” . Held, the information does not state facts sufficient to constitute a public offense.
    Appeal from County Court, Pontotoc County; Tal Crawford, Judge.
    Lena Isaab was convicted of keeping a disorderly bouse, and sbe appeals.
    Reversed.
    King & Crawford, for plaintiff in error.
    Tbe Attorney General, and N. W. Gore, Asst. Atty. Gen., for tbe State.
   DOYLE, J.

This appeal is from a judgment of the county court of Pontotoc county, rendered in pursuance of a verdict convicting Lena Isaab of the offense of keeping a disorderly bouse, .and fixing her punishment at confinement for 30 days in the county jail and a fine of $50.

Omitting parts purely formal, tbe information charges that Lena Isaab, did commit "the crime of keeping a disorderly bouse in the manner and form as follows: That is to say, tbe defendant did, in said county and state, at tbe above-named time and place, wilfully and unlawfully keep a disorderly house in! the north part of Ada, Pontotoc county, Okla., contrary,” etc.

Defendant interposed a demurrer on the- ground that tbe information does not state facts sufficient to constitute a public offense, which demurrer was overruled and exception allowed.

While, as a general rule, it is sufficient to charge a statutory offense in the language of the statute, there are exceptions to the rule.

Bishop says:

“The criminal nature and degree of the offense must ‘appear in allegation, ’ also tbe particular facts and circumstances which render the defendant guilty of that offense. ’ ’ 1 Bishop’s Crim. Proc. par. 625; Weston v. Territory, 1 Okla. Cr. 407, 98 Pac. 360: Sletcher v. State, 2 Okla. Cr. 300, 101 Pac. 599, 23 L. R. A. (N. S.) 581; Abrams v. State, 13 Okla. Cr. 11, 161 Pac. 331; Wilcox v. State, 13 Okla. Cr. 599, 167 Pac. 74; Cole v. State, 15 Okla. Cr. 361, 177 Pac. 129.

A house in which people abide and disturb the order and tranquility of the neighborhood is a “disorderly house,” and such facts should be alleged in an information charging the keeping of a disorderly house.

It follows that the court erred in overruling the demurrer to the information. The judgment is accordingly reversed, and the cause remanded, with direction to sustain the demurrer.

MATSON, P. J., and BESSEY, J., concur.