Crane

The appellant, H. Stanley Crane, was charged by indictment of the grand jury of the county of San Joaquin with the crime of embezzling the property of Mrs. Helen Kleppel. He was thereupon duly tried and convicted of the crime charged. Defendant moved for a new trial, which motion was denied, and he was thereupon sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison for a term of five years. Defendant prosecutes this appeal from the order and the judgment.

The defendant, an attorney at law, was retained by Mrs. Helen Kleppel, the prosecuting witness, to obtain a divorce. It appearing that Mrs. Kleppel’s husband contemplated fighting the divorce by cross-complaining that Mrs. Kleppel had been improperly intimate with one Frank Kaplan, defendant decided that detectives would be necessary not only to disprove such a charge against Mrs. Kleppel but to prove a like charge against her husband. For this purpose, claims the prosecuting witness, defendant demanded four hundred dollars, which was finally obtained through Kaplan and paid defendant, he having received prior to that time but twenty dollars to cover the costs of commencing suit. It is this four hundred dollars which it is charged…