People v. Strong

Strong, C. M.

It is sufficiently clear, as a matter of law, that, unless protected by the clause added in 1929 to subdivision 3 of section 899 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (L. 1929, ch. 344), answers of the prophetic type given by this defendant to the policewomen’s questions must be deemed to constitute fortunetelling. The word “ pretend ’•’ in the statute simply means that the Legislature was skeptical of anyone’s ability to foretell future events and used the word in the sense of “ make claim ”. In other words, the person charged with the offense may believe in his or her ability to…