Otash

This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction of conspiracy to drug a race horse (the order granting probation) and the order denying a motion for a new trial.

In an indictment in Los Angeles County, the appellant, hereinafter referred to as Otash, and others were charged in Count I with conspiracy to violate section 337b of the Penal Code (offering a bribe to a participant in a contest) between December 1958 and June 1959. In Count II Otash, Dave Negri, Lou Kane, Don Lee Wells, Richard Gach, Donald Hinton and Donald Potter, as well as persons whose names were unknown were charged with conspiracy to violate Penal Code, section 337f (administering a drug to a horse in a race) between February 1959 and June 1959.

As to Counts I and II the defendants were also charged with conspiracy to cheat and defraud by criminal means and to obtain money by false pretenses; in Count III Otash and Gach were charged with violating Penal Code, section 337b on or about January 26, 1959, with reference to a horse race and in Count IV Otash was charged with violating Penal Code, section 337b on or about February 10, 1959, with reference to a horse race. Otash pleaded not guilty. After the jury was…