Hashimoto

Defendant appeals from a judgment of conviction entered in a nonjury trial for pandering in violation of Penal Code section 266i, which statute condemns among other things, the inducing, persuading or encouraging a female to become a prostitute.

Carlene Moriarty, a fulltime regularly employed policewoman assigned to the vice squad of the Los Angeles Police Department, undertook to investigate a complaint that prostitution was being conducted through the Japan Travel Bureau. Using the alias “Cici,” the officer called the travel bureau and talked to defendant Hashimoto on the telephone. She told him that she had received his name and telephone number from a young lady at the Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles and had been informed that he was hiring girls to work for him. The defendant invited the officer to come to his office to discuss employment.

That evening Officer Moriarty accompanied by a male vice officer went to defendant’s office. Officer Moriarty was wearing a Fargo device in order to transmit conversations to the other officer who was equipped with a receiver.

Officer Moriarty represented herself to be a model. Defendant asked for a telephone number that he would…