Court Opinion

ID: 9884184
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 02:45:42.061887+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:36.198276
License: Public Domain

FICKLING, Associate Judge
(dissenting):
These cases present three issues: (1) whether the informations filed against the defendants are insufficient for failure to allege the essential facts of the offense charged; (2) whether the trial court erred in ruling that the informations must allege either soliciting for prostitution or soliciting for lewd and immoral purposes, but not both; and (3) whether the government’s appeal from the dismissal of the informa-*476tions charging- defendant Miqueli was timely.
Although I agree with the majority’s resolution of the timeliness issue, I cannot agree that the informations filed against the defendants contain a statement of the essential facts constituting the alleged solicitation, as required by Rule 7(c) of the Superior Court Rules of Criminal Procedure. Therefore, I find it unnecessary to reach the joinder issue raised by appellant.
The basic purpose of an information is to institute a criminal proceeding. However, it also provides substantial constitutional safeguards to those charged with a crime. An information must be sufficiently specific to perform two constitutionally based functions. First, it should apprise the accused of the charge against him so he can properly prepare his defense;1 and second, it should set forth enough facts to enable the accused to plead the judgment as a bar to a subsequent prosecution for the same crime.2 Russell v. United States, 369 U.S. 749, 765, 82 S.Ct. 1038, 8 L.Ed.2d 240 (1962); United States v. Pendergrast, D.C.App., 313 A.2d 103, 103-04 (1973); Horowitz v. District of Columbia, D.C.App., 291 A.2d 202, 203 (1972); Bush v. United States, D.C.App., 215 A.2d 853, 855 (1966). A corollary purpose served by an information is to inform the court of the facts alleged so that it can decide whether they are legally sufficient to support a conviction as a matter of law. Russell v. United States, supra, 369 U.S. at 769, 82 S.Ct. 1038; United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542, 558, 23 L.Ed. 588 (1876); Bush v. United States, supra at 855.
Where, as in these cases, an information is framed in the language of the statute, the information is not sufficient unless the language sets forth fully, directly, and expressly, without any uncertainty or ambiguity, all the elements of the offense charged. Hamling v. United States, 418 U.S. 87, 117, 94 S.Ct. 2887, 41 L.Ed.2d 590 (1974); United States v. Carll, 105 U.S. 611, 612, 26 L.Ed. 1135 (1882). Although the language of the statute may be used in the general description of the offense, it must be accompanied with a statement of the facts that will inform the defendant of the specific offense with which he is charged. Russell v. United States, supra, 369 U.S. at 765, 82 S.Ct. 1038; United States v. Hess, 124 U.S. 483, 487, 31 L.Ed. 516 (1888). An information that does not apprise the defendant with reasonable certainty of the accusations against him is insufficient, even though the information is framed in the language of the statute. Russell v. United States, supra, 369 U.S. at 765, 82 S.Ct. 1038; United States v. Simmons, 96 U.S. 360, 362, 24 L.Ed. 819 (1878). Rule 7(c) requires that an “information shall be a plain, concise and definite written statement of the essential facts constituting the offense charged. . . .” Hence, if the information does not contain a plain, concise and definite written statement of the essential facts constituting the offense for which the defendant is being tried, it is insufficient.
In my view, the informations in the cases before us are fatally defective because they fail to state the essential facts constituting the alleged sexual solicitations. In the recent case of Horowitz v. District of Columbia, supra, this court held that an information charging the offense of unlawful assembly in the language of the statute was insufficient in the absence of any particulars as to the acts by which the offense was committed. The information there charged that the defendant “did congregate and assemble . . . and crowd, obstruct and incommode” a public street in violation of the statute. While recognizing that some offenses may be adequately described in the words of the statute, the court ruled that an information must add' some particulars of the defendant’s allegedly unlawful acts where the words of the statute are general in nature. In the in*477stant cases, the informations charge the defendants in the language of the statute and include the dates of the alleged solicitations, as well as the names of the persons solicited. The defendants are charged with having “invited, enticed, persuaded and addressed for the purpose of inviting, enticing and persuading for the purpose of prostitution and an immoral and lewd purpose. . . The informations do not state the factual bases of the charges against the defendants. The statute itself uses general terms in defining solicitation and does not sufficiently describe the offense so as to notify the defendant of the acts which he is alleged to have committed. The informations in these cases consist of no more than conclusory statements that the defendants violated the statute by some unspecified acts. In order to properly charge the offense of unlawful sexual solicitation, an information must include the words and actions of the accused which constitute the alleged solicitation.
The majority relies on Hawkins v. United States, D.C.Mun.App., 105 A.2d 250 (1954), as authority for holding that the language of the statute making sexual solicitation unlawful is sufficiently definite to apprise the defendants of the nature of the accusations against them. In Hawkins, the court upheld the constitutionality of the sexual solicitation statute against a claim that the statute was unconstitutionally vague in violation of the Fifth Amendment. The court was not presented with the question of whether the information, using the language of the statute, would be sufficient to charge unlawful solicitation in the absence of a statement of the essential facts constituting the offense.
The informations in the instant cases are not sufficiently definite to apprise the defendants of the accusations against them and, thus, to enable them to prepare their defense or to plead a judgment as a bar to future prosecutions for the same offense. Additionally, the informations fail to provide the court with sufficient facts to decide whether they are legally sufficient to support a conviction as a matter of law. Since the informations fail to perform any of the functions required of them, they are fatally defective.
A further reason why these informations are insufficient is that they fail to allege the element of financial gain. There exists no common law definition for prostitution, 73 C.J.S. Prostitution § 1 at 224 (1951), nor has prostitution been defined by statute or judicial decision in the District of Columbia. Bailey v. United States, 69 App.D.C. 25, 98 F.2d 306 (1938). However, some solicitation cases indicate that there must be at least a discussion of financial gain or something of value in exchange for a promise to perform a sex act. Garrett v. United States, D.C.App., 339 A.2d 372 (1975); Hall v. United States, D.C.Mun.App., 34 A.2d 631 (1943).
The majority argues that any deficiency in the informations in these cases could have been cured by bills of particulars. But it is a settled rule that a bill of particulars cannot save an invalid indictment. Russell v. United States, supra, 369 U.S. at 770, 82 S.Ct. 1038. The information must contain a statement of the essential facts constituting the offense charged. Super.Ct.Cr.R. 7(c). If it does, but does not allege sufficient particulars to allow the defendant to prepare his defense, a court may permit a bill of particulars. Super.Ct.Cr.R. 7(f). However, where the information fails to allege essential facts necessary to charge a crime, no amount of particularization in a bill can remedy the defect.
I respectfully dissent.

. U.S.Const. Amend. VI.

. U.S.Const. Amend. V.