The Code forbids “any person to invite * * * any person * * * in or upon any avenue, street, road, highway, open space, alley, public square, or inclosure in the District of Columbia, to accompany * * * her * * * for the purpose of prostitution, or any other immoral or lewd purpose.”
Even if the information were valid, the conviction would not be, for there was no proof that defendant’s purpose was among those which the statute prohibits. The government’s evidence was that she approached a policeman’s car on a certain street and “asked him if he wanted a date that he answered yes; that she asked if she should get in the car, and he answered yes; that she got in the car and asked “if he wanted to drive and talk.” Defendant’s purpose was at worst ambiguous. There was no evidence that the parties were strangers to each other; and even if they were, the proposed “date” did not necessarily include prostitution.
Reversed.
D.C.Code, Supp. V, 1939, Tit. 6, § 177a.
Cf. Bailey v. United States, 69 App.D.C. 25, 27, 98 F.2d 306.