Ex parte Halsted

The petitioner was convicted of the crime of petit larceny in the police court of the city of Los Angeles, and as a penalty therefor the court imposed a fine of $150, and in default of payment thereof, ordered that he be imprisoned in the city jail of the city of Los Angeles one day for each and every dollar of said fine remaining unpaid.

It is claimed by his counsel that there was no police *472 court in the city of Los Angeles on the day of the arrest, conviction, and commitment of the petitioner, and that if such court existed, there was no authority to commit the petitioner to the city jail.

The judgment against the petitioner was entered on the fifth day of February, 1891. At that time, and long prior thereto, the city of Los Angeles was a city having over thirty thousand inhabitants. It was intimated by the court at the oral argument that the census was complete, so far as the classification of cities is concerned, as soon as the returns were filed in the office of the superintendent of census at Washington. It is unnecessary, however, for us in this case to determine the precise time at which the city of Los Angeles passed into the class of cities having more than thirty…