Little v. State

Henderson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This appeal is from a judgment and sentence upon the verdict of a jury finding the appellant guilty of accepting bets on horse races and maintaining premises for such purpose. The principal questions raised are as to the correctness of the court’s rulings as to the admissibility of the testimony of two members of the State Police Force as to matters observed by them and certain statements made to them. If this testimony was inadmissible, as contended, it is further urged that the remaining evidence was insufficient to convict.

Leonard Little was indicted in Allegany County along with one Edward Capel and Thomas Neff. The case was removed to Washington County and a severance granted. The record shows that the City of Cumberland is a duly incorporated municipality maintaining a police department of its own and having an executive officer called a mayor, a police and fire commissioner, and a chief of police. The testimony shows that on April 25, 1952, John M. Long, the Commissioner of Police of Cumberland, wrote a letter to Col.

Munshower, the Superintendent of State Police, requesting that two State Police officers in plain clothes be detailed to make a certain investigation of gambling in Cumberland. The request was granted, and Sergeants Jackson and Smith were assigned to the work in Cumberland. They went ⁵²¹ to the poolroom operated by Little on the evening of August 29. Over objection, these officers were permitted to testify that they played several games of pool, and then asked an elderly man, whom they subsequently learned was Edward Capel, about placing a bet on “Ritbred,” a horse running that day at Atlantic City.

Capel wrote the bet on a slip of paper and accepted $7 from the witnesses. Capel then went to the back of the room, where the proprietor, Little, and other men were standing, and when he returned told them: “I got it up.” The witnesses then left the premises. The next day they returned to the pool-room, where they talked to Capel and Little. They asked for their money back, as it appeared that the horse they had bet on had been scratched.

Capel said to Little, “These are the men.” Little pulled a roll of bills from his pocket and handed $7 to one of the witnesses. The witnesses further testified they then asked Little about placing a bet on “Native Dancer.” Little told them to “see that man at the other end of the counter”, pointing to him. This man was Thomas Neff. While waiting their turn, they saw Neff accept a bet from another man, but Neff declined to accept a bet they offered.

This is all the pertinent testimony relating to the offense charged. The appellant contends that the court erred in instructing the jury that John W. Long, the Police and Fire Commissioner of Cumberland, had legal authority to request the detailing of State Police to the investigation, and that they were legally detailed and legally on the premises of Little at the time they obtained the evidence referred to. We think the ruling was correct. Code (1951), Art. 88B, Sec. 28, provides that the State Police shall not act within the limits of any incorporated municipality which maintains a police force, except under specified conditions, the only one here applicable being “(3) when requested to act by the chief executive officer of the municipality in question or its chief police