In Re Taylor

Petitioner is detained by the sheriff of Los Angeles County under commitment made pursuant to an order binding her to answer to a charge of receiving stolen goods. Petitioner contends that she is imprisoned without probable cause. Section 496 of the Penal Code fastens the crime of receiving stolen goods upon “Every person who for his own gain, or to prevent the owner from again possessing Ms property, buys or receives any personal property, knowing the same to have been stolen.” The point made by petitioner is that she was committed without evidence showing that an article received by -her, a certain watch, was taken with guilty knowledge.

The evidence before the committing magistrate showed that the watch in question, along with a considerable number of other articles of jewelry, was taken by robbers from a manager of a “loan association.” Upon an occasion after the robbery three peace officers, Cahill, Peoples, and Sweesey, called upon petitioner at the apartment which was her place of residence. The testimony of these men, given in the order in which their names are set forth above, contains the only evidence bearing upon the point presented by petitioner. Cahill was asked who…