Title: State v. Cruse
Citation: 231 Or. 326, 372 P.2d 974
Docket Number: N/A
State: Oregon
Issuer: Oregon Supreme Court
Date: June 27, 1962

Affirmed June 27, 1962.
Richard H. Allen, Salem, argued the cause and filed a brief for appellant.
*327 Gary D. Gortmaker, Deputy District Attorney, Salem, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief was Hattie Bratzel Kremen, District Attorney, Salem.
Before McALLISTER, Chief Justice, and ROSSMAN, O'CONNELL and GOODWIN, Justices.
AFFIRMED.
McALLISTER, C.J.
This is an appeal by the defendant, Edward Everett Cruse, from his conviction in the circuit court for Marion county of the crime of obtaining money and property by false pretenses in violation of ORS 165.205.
Defendant assigns as error the failure of the trial court to sustain an objection to certain questions about other offenses asked of defendant during his cross-examination by the state.
The defendant, as a witness on his own behalf, admitted that on Saturday, April 22, 1961, he gave the proprietor of a men's clothing store in Salem a worthless check for $40, and received in exchange both merchandise and cash. In effect he admitted all of the elements of the crime with which he was charged except guilty knowledge and criminal intent.
The check was drawn on the North Salem Branch of The United States National Bank in which defendant had opened an account on May 19, 1959. Numerous deposits were made and checks drawn on the account until the end of July, 1959. The last deposit to the account, in the amount of $5, was made on July 30, 1959. On August 15, 1959 the balance in the account was reduced to $5.33, and on February 17, 1960 the *328 balance was reduced to thirty-three cents. The bank closed the account on July 29, 1960, and it was still a closed account when defendant issued the check in question on April 22, 1961.
Defendant testified that he had been incarcerated in the Washington State Reformatory at Monroe, from about March 15, 1960 to April 10, 1961. He admitted that he had not personally deposited any money in his bank account after February, 1960, but testified that in Salem on February 15, 1960 he gave his estranged wife $400 to deposit in his account. He also testified that after his release from the reformatory in April, 1961, while he was in Port Angeles, Washington, he gave his sister-in-law $300 and requested her to deposit the money in his account in Salem. According to the defendant the sister-in-law was moving to California and intended to stop in Salem enroute.
During his direct examination defendant testified that after his release from the reformatory on April 10, 1961 he spent several days in Seattle and Port Angeles, and then returned to Salem to take care of his "union affairs." His testimony included the following question and answer:
Defendant was cross-examined by the state as follows:
1. Putting aside the adequacy of the objection in the court below, we are satisfied that there is no merit in the assignment of error. ORS 139.310 authorizes the cross-examination of a defendant in a criminal case who testifies in his own behalf "upon all facts to which he has testified and which tend to his conviction or acquittal." It has long been settled that this statute permits cross-examination upon all matters "properly germane to and connected with" the testimony in chief. State v. McCarroll, 123 Or 173, 177, 261 P 411 (1927); State v. Stilwell, 109 Or 643, 663, 221 P 174 (1923); State v. Wong Wen Teung, 99 Or 95, 107, 195 P 349 (1921); State v. Lem Woon, 57 Or 482, 490, 107 P 974, 112 P 427 (1910), affm'd 229 US 586, 33 S Ct 783, 57 LEd 1340 (1913); State v. Deal, 52 Or 568, 571, 98 P 165 (1908).
The earlier cases determining the scope of cross-examination permissible under the statute were reviewed *331 and approved in State v. Lem Woon, supra, 57 Or at 491, as follows:
In the later case of State v. Wong Wen Teung, supra, 99 Or at 111, this court said:
*333 The defendant relies on State v. Jensen, 70 Or 156, 140 P 740 (1914), and State v. Ewing, 174 Or 487, 149 P2d 765 (1944), but these cases are clearly distinguishable and contain nothing helpful to the defendant in this case.
2, 3. We think the questions asked of defendant on cross-examination were germane to his guilty knowledge and criminal intent. This court has uniformly held in cases involving embezzlement or obtaining money by other fraudulent means that evidence of other similar transactions is admissible to prove criminal intent. See State v. McGowan, 218 Or 455, 459, 345 P2d 831 (1959); State v. Ankeny, 185 Or 549, 559, 204 P2d 133 (1949); State v. Cooke et al, 130 Or 552, 568, 278 P 936 (1929); State v. Robinson, 120 Or 508, 511, 252 P 951 (1927); State v. Germain, 54 Or 395, 403, 103 P 521 (1909).
Finding no error, the judgment is affirmed.