Commonwealth v. Owens
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Indictment for keeping, April 22, 1873, and on divers other days and times during the six months next before that date, a tenement used for the illegal sale of intoxicating liquors. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Dewey, J., the evidence was directed to a tenement numbered 141 on Merrimack Street. One witness had testified that the defendant had told him that he kept the place.
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Indictment for keeping, April 22, 1873, and on divers other days and times during the six months next before that date, a tenement used for the illegal sale of intoxicating liquors. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Dewey, J., the evidence was directed to a tenement numbered 141 on Merrimack Street. One witness had testified that the defendant had told him that he kept the place. Then a police officer named Sleeper was called by the government, and was asked, for the first question, “ What, if anything, have you seen the defendant doing on the premises 141 Merrimack Street during the…
1Opinion of the CourtMorton, J.
The rulings at the trial were correct. 1. The questions asked of the witnesses, Sleeper, George and Leavitt, were admissible, and so was the testimony given in reply. This testimony tended to show that the defendant kept a tenement* used for the illegal sale of intoxicating liquors, as alleged in the indictment.
*2552. It was not necessary for the government to prove that the defendant kept the tenement during the whole of the time alleged in the indictment, nor that the exclusive business carried on there by him was selling liquor; nor, having shown that it was used for the illegal keeping or sale…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Commonwealth v. CarpenterMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1868
- Commonwealth v. CoganMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1871
3Cited by1 opinion
- Lewinsohn v. United StatesCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit · 1921