6. SAME FRAUD-PROOF-GIST OF OFFENSE.

To constitute the charged criminal perpetration of fraud against the county under said statute, it is not essential to prove that the municipal corporation, as such, sustained direct pecuniary loss; it being sufficient to show that defendant knowingly, designedly, and with intent to deceive, falsely reported in his official capacity to the county officers a valuation of his township for assessment purposes less than the true amount, as a result of which excessive and unlawful county taxes were unwittingly imposed upon and collected from that portion of the county outside the township he represented, and which he knew should have been rightfully imposed upon it.

The contention of defendant that a person who is summoned to testify before a court of inquiry or called as a witness in an authorized proceeding for the discovery of crime under Act No. 196, Pub. Acts 1917, and there gives testimony, whatever its nature, is thereafter immune from a prosecution based on information obtained during such inquiry, from whatever source it came, cannot be sustained.

Exceptions before judgment from Oakland; Rockwell, J. Submitted January 16, 1919. (Docket No. 114.) Decided April 3, 1919.

Albert W. Willson was convicted of making a false report with intent to cheat and defraud. Reversed.

Pelton & McGee and A. L. Moore, for appellant.

Glenn C. Gillespie, Prosecuting Attorney, and James H. Lynch, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for the people.

STEERE, J. Respondent brings this case here for review before sentence on his conviction in the circuit court of Oakland county under an information charging him with having as supervisor of the township of Royal Oak falsely and fraudulently reported a wrong valuation of that township to the board of supervisors

and its committees of equalization at the June and October, 1916, sessions thereof with intent to defraud and cheat the county of Oakland and its taxpayers.

The township of Royal Oak, containing a village of the same name, lies near and just north of the city of Detroit, and was roused from its previous rural quiet by an invading demand for real estate at greatly enhanced values with a feverish haste to plat the same as suburban property of Detroit to meet the existing or anticipated demand which took place in the environments of that city from 1915 to 1917. Respondent was supervisor of Royal Oak township during that time and as a result of this so-called "real estate boom" the assessment roll of Royal Oak township, which consisted of 137 pages in 1912, grew to 1,600 pages in 1917. In 1915, when respondent was elected supervisor of that township, he established his office in his house, hiring a young lady by the name of Dorothy Smith as clerk, assisted at week ends by his own son who was attending school at Ypsilanti. At the January, 1916, session of the board of supervisors he ordered four books of 200 pages each for his 1916 assessment roll and later, discovering it was not sufficient, ordered another book of 250 pages, after the spring election of 1916. During the summer of 1916 the Detroit real estate boom which had spread over that section resulted in such hasty platting of subdivisions that there were upon the assessment roll of that year about 84 more plats than the previous year, with approximately 17,400 more descriptions. The township board consisted of respondent, as supervisor, Mr. Blair, its clerk, and two justices of the peace whose offices would soonest expire, named Grow and Wheeler. Wheeler was a paralytic and took little, if any, part in public matters; Grow's term of office expired in July, 1916, and though re-elected he did not qualify. Respondent and Blair were the only active members

of the board looking after the township's affairs. Blair maintained an office in the township hall where his clerical duties appear to have occupied most of his time. Respondent attempted to look after the general township business, which under existing conditions required investigation of plats, opening of streets, railroad crossings, drains and other matters of like nature involving public interests. The clerical work of his office was apparently given little attention by him and with his scant clerical force fell behind, if not into confusion.

Apparently owing to rumors afloat and confusion in township affairs, H. E. Miller, the incoming treasurer in 1917, succeeding a treasurer named Mark Halsey, refused to take over the township treasurer's books and responsibilities until an audit was had, but finally assumed the duties of the office after giving a receipt for the amount of money actually turned over to him. Later the township board by official action procured the services of a trust company of Detroit to conduct an audit of the township books and records. An audit was thereafter made by a certified public accountant in the employ of the trust company who completed his work in September of that year and made a report, three copies of which respondent directed should be delivered to him. They were mailed to Mr. Blair, the township clerk, from whom respondent secured two copies shortly thereafter, one of which he retained at his home and the other he delivered to his attorney who was then acting as attorney for the township. Except the respondent claims to have discussed the matter with his counsel the township officials seem to have done nothing further until February 11, 1918, when the prosecuting attorney of Oakland county took the matter up and first endeavored to have something in the nature of an amicable investigation before the township board

with a stenographer present, to whom defendant's counsel, who was in attendance as attorney for the township, objected and the prosecuting attorney withdrew. Having obtained a copy of the auditor's report the prosecuting attorney then instituted an investigation before a justice of the peace of Pontiac, based chiefly upon the report, the inquisitorial proceedings being taken under Act No. 196 of the Public Acts of 1917. As a result of that investigation criminal proceedings were instituted against respondent for malfeasance in office in various particulars and he was ultimately arraigned in the circuit court upon an information charging fraudulent official misconduct as stated, to which he refused to plead and a plea of not guilty was entered by the court in his behalf, followed by trial and verdict of conviction.

Defendant's bill of exceptions presents 47 assignments of error involving numerous dilatory proceedings by motion for change of venue, motions to quash the information, motions for continuance, etc., in which no reversible error is found, while certain others, based on objections raised during the trial, are unfortunately not properly presented because obscured by facts asserted in their support which do not appear in the record and for that reason are not entitled to consideration.

This information is filed under section 15308, 3 Comp. Laws 1915 (being section 27 of chapter 257, entitled "Offenses against Property"), which provides:

"If any officer, clerk or other person, employed in the treasury of this State, or in the treasury of any county, or in any other public office within this State, shall commit any fraud or embezzlement therein, he shall be punished by imprisonment in the State's prison," etc.

The specific criminal act with which respondent was charged and for which he was tried under this statute

is, concisely stated, perpetrating a fraud upon the county of Oakland in the fall of 1916 while supervisor of Royal Oak township and a member of the board of supervisors of said county by "falsely and fraudulently" reporting and representing to the board of supervisors that the correct valuation of Royal Oak township according to his assessment roll for that year was $9,832,200, "with intent then and there to cheat and defraud the said county of Oakland and the taxpayers thereof, in that a smaller and lesser proportion of State, county, and county road taxes (for said year 1916) might be apportioned by said board of supervisors to said township of Royal Oak," etc., whereas in truth and fact the correct valuation of his township for that year as shown by the assessment roll thereof was as prepared by him $12,173,280.

The board of supervisors held a meeting in June of that year for the purpose, amongst other things, of equalizing the valuations of the several townships in the county and determining upon a basis for the State and county tax, and a committee of equalization was appointed which proceeded in the performance of its duties to look over the assessment rolls of the various townships and ascertain each supervisor's assessed valuation of his township. Respondent had not near finished making the assessment roll for his township at that time, but attended the meeting of the board, held in Pontiac, taking along his incompleted assessment roll consisting of five volumes. Three of these were practically completed, the fourth but partially, with very little done upon the fifth which, when done, included practically all the property in Royal Oak village and so far as completed but part of the volumes had been footed in lead pencil. No definite statement of valuation could be reached from this uncompleted roll. Respondent testified he stated to the chairman.

205-Mich.-3.