Court Opinion

ID: 9552088
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 19:04:35.324939+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:25:37.136478
License: Public Domain

BUSSEY, Judge
(concurring):
I am in complete accord with Judge Bliss’ interpretation of the statute which, in substance, holds that it was not the legislative intent to require the State to prove by direct evidence that a defendant, charged under the provisions of the statute heretofore recited, be actually physically present and receive the money either in person or constructively, but that circumstantial evidence establishing the defendant’s guilt of the crime charged is sufficient. To hold otherwise and require the State to actually place the defendant at the scene by direct evidence would thwart the legislative intent and invite a public officer, responsible for the supervision of a large number of employees who are acting under his direction and receiving public money, to employ the precise plan here followed.
A public officer without a staff could certainly be convicted on circumstantial evidence without the necessity of the State proving by direct evidence his physical presence when the money was received or forwarded to the city. Even a public officer with a small staff could be convicted under the evidence here presented. I do not believe that the statute was intended to punish only public officers who operate without a staff, or with a very limited one, and who violate the provisions of the statute by making false entries on small sums of money received by them which can be proved circumstantially, and impose upon the State the duty to prove by direct evidence that the public officer with a large staff and who receives large sums of money, was present at the time the money was received or forwarded to the city. Such a *785judicial construction would be not only absurd, but fundamentally unfair and discriminatory and frustrate and defeat the ends of justice.
Here, as in McCluskey, it was necessary to introduce evidence of other offenses in order to aid the jury in their determination. Considering the admonitions of the trial court and the concise instructions, together with the overwhelming evidence of the defendant’s guilt, I fail to see how any fair-minded jury could arrive at any other verdict than the one rendered in the instant case.