Opinion ID: 198604
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: applying the crime-fraud exception

Text: 30 Having concluded that an exception to the privilege exists, we next mull its applicability here. As explained above, a party invoking the crime-fraud exception must make a prima facie showing that the exception applies. The Supreme Court has described the required quantum of evidence as something to give colour to the charge . . . that has some foundation in fact. Clark, 289 U.S. at 15 (citation omitted). 31 Although we have not had occasion to flesh out this rather sketchy standard, other courts of appeals have offered varying interpretations. Compare, e.g., In re Grand Jury Proceedings, 87 F.3d 377, 381 (9th Cir. 1996) (reasonable cause), with In re Antitrust Grand Jury, 805 F.2d 155, 165-66 (6th Cir. 1986) (probable cause), with In re Feldberg, 862 F.2d 622, 625-26 (7th Cir. 1988) (evidence sufficient to require an explanation by the party asserting the privilege, which the court describes as less than a preponderance), with Haines v. Liggett Group Inc., 975 F.2d 81, 95-96 (3d Cir. 1992) (evidence which, if believed, would be sufficient to support a finding that the elements of the crime-fraud exception were satisfied), with In re Grand Jury Proceedings, 641 F.2d 199, 203 (5th Cir. 1981) (same, except that evidence to the contrary is to be disregarded). 6 This case presents no occasion to pick and choose among these sundry formulations of the standard. On the facts before us, the district court's determination that the government carried its burden is unassailable, regardless of which version of the standard applies. 32 We review the district court's determination that particular communications come within the crime-fraud exception for abuse of discretion. See Reeder, 170 F.3d at 106. Kelly's affidavit contains a wealth of evidence indicating that Violette's communications to Drs. LeMay and Balian, respectively, were made as part of a scheme to defraud lenders and/or disability insurers. Thus, the lower court's determination that the government established the key ingredients of the crime-fraud exception -- that Violette was engaged in or was planning illegal and fraudulent conduct, and that he obtained assistance from the two doctors in furtherance of this activity, see Jacobs, 117 F.3d at 87-89 (explicating the elements of the crime-fraud exception) -- was not an abuse of discretion. 33 Violette's fallback position is that the district court erred in applying the crime-fraud exception because the psychiatrists were not coconspirators, but at most unwitting pawns. The argument appears to be that since the psychiatrists believed at the time that they were engaged in the professional treatment of an authentic patient, the privilege should remain inviolate. It is true that the doctors' innocence distinguishes this case from In re Grand Jury Subpoena, 710 F. Supp. at 1001, on which the district court relied -- but this is a distinction bereft of a meaningful difference. The case law dealing with the crime-fraud exception in the attorney-client context makes it transparently clear that the client's intentions control. See, e.g., Clark, 289 U.S. at 15 (The attorney may be innocent, and still the guilty client must let the truth come out.); United States v. Ballard, 779 F.2d 287, 292 (5th Cir. 1986) (stating that the exception attaches when the lawyer becomes either the accomplice or the unwitting tool in a continuing or planned wrongful act); United States v. Calvert, 523 F.2d 895, 909 (8th Cir. 1975) (explaining that [i]t is the client's purpose which is controlling, and it matters not that the attorney was ignorant of the client's purpose). We see no credible basis for applying a different rule in the psychotherapist-patient context.