Court Opinion

ID: 9778133
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 20:33:48.45008+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:03.995854
License: Public Domain

DOUGLAS, Judge,
dissenting on State’s motion for rehearing.
Can a man control, supervise and manage a prostitution enterprise and a call girl operation that uses two prostitutes without knowing it? If he can, then the indictment is insufficient and the majority is correct in denying the motion for leave to file the State’s motion for rehearing.
Even though appellant entered a plea of guilty and there was no motion to quash the indictment and no complaint on appeal, the panel deciding this cause on original submission held that the failure to allege the word “knowingly” before the allegation that he controlled, managed and supervised the prostitution enterprise was fundamentally defective.
Article 21.17, V.A.C.C.P., provides:
“Words used in a statute to define an offense need not be strictly pursued in the indictment; it is sufficient to use other words conveying the same meaning, or which include the sense of the statutory words.” (Emphasis supplied)
V.T.C.A., Penal Code, Section 43.04(a), provides:
“A person commits an offense if he knowingly owns, invests in, finances, controls, supervises, or manages a prostitution enterprise that uses two or more prostitutes.”
The charging part of the indictment alleged that appellant
“did then and there unlawfully control and supervise and manage a prostitution enterprise that uses two prostitutes in that the said Defendant did then and there manage a call-girl operation using two prostitutes, to-wit, Renee Suzette Clark and Charlotte Boatwright.”
There could be some reason to consider the indictment as being insufficient for not alleging knowingly if it alleged that one owned, invested in or financed a house where there was prostitution. One might own, invest in or finance a motel and not know that a prostitution enterprise was being conducted on the premises.
The majority in discussing Article 21.17, supra, which provides that the exact words in a statute do not have to be used in alleging an offense, gives the unsound and illogical reasoning in failing to follow the statute that the word “knowingly” has a technical meaning but not the meaning as used or found in the ordinary dictionary.
It is submitted that no amount of judicial embroidery or legalistic mumbo jumbo can change the definition of “knowingly” or make it a technical word.
It is even conceivable that the legendary not too bright piano player in a bordello might not have known what was going on upstairs, but it is inconceivable that one can control, supervise a prostitution enterprise and manage a call girl operation using two prostitutes and not know what was going on.
In Dovalina v. State, 564 S.W.2d 378 (Tex.Cr.App.1978), this Court held that the allegation of “attempt” included “intent.” The words supervise, control and manage include knowingly. One cannot supervise, control and manage any business without knowing that he is doing it. The exact words of the statute were not alleged in Dovalina. We should follow the same reasoning in this case.
*817The indictment is not defective. It uses “other words conveying the same meaning, or which include the sense of statutory words” under Article 21.17, supra. The State’s motion for rehearing should be granted, and the judgment should be affirmed.
VOLLERS and W. C. DAVIS, JJ., join in this dissent.