Harris

In this action the appellant was charged in three counts with the sale of intoxicating liquors contrary to the Wright Act. He was acquitted upon the first and third counts and convicted on the second. All three sales were alleged to have been made within, fourteen days—the first, on July 26, 1925; the second, the one for which defendant was convicted, on August 2, 1925, and the third on August 9, 1925. The testimony shows that the defendant was a deputy sheriff, running a lunch-room at Topango Canyon in the county of Los Angeles; that two members of the sheriff’s office went to Topango Canyon for a couple of weeks in search of purveyors of illicit liquor and simulated drunkenness with the object of allaying suspicion as to their real purpose. Defendant’s witnesses testified that the intoxication was not simulated, but existed in fact. Evidence was introduced to show that on July 26th, one of the arresting officers, McDonald, purchased a pint bottle of liquor; that on August 2d, McDonald and the other deputy, Frazier, purchased two pint bottles; that on August 9th, they again purchased two pint bottles. Preliminary to the first purchase, McDonald asked the defendant “if he knew…