Opinion ID: 1384126
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: krs 218a.280.

Text: Nevertheless, we also agree with the Commonwealth that KRS 218A.280 creates an exception to the psychotherapist-patient privilege in addition to those enumerated in KRE 507(c). KRS 218A.280 and its predecessor statutes, KRS 218A.280 and its predecessor statutes, KRS 218.170(2) and KS 3716-17(2), have been a part of our controlled substances laws since 1934, [4] long before recognition of a psychotherapist-patient privilege. By its very language, KRS 218A.280 applies to any claim of privilege with respect to a communication to any medical practitioner for the purpose of unlawfully obtaining a controlled substance. The language in former KRS 421.215 (psychiatrist-patient privilege) was virtually identical to that in present KRE 507 and contained the same exceptions, with some variations in language, now found in KRE 507(c). The legislature had ample opportunity, both when KRS 421.215 was enacted in 1966 and when KRE 507 was adopted in 1992, to repeal or modify KRS 218A.280 or its predecessor if it deemed that statute in conflict with the privileges and exceptions described in former KRS 421.215 or KRE 507. In fact, thirty-six statutes deemed in conflict with or duplicative of the Kentucky Rules of Evidence, including KRS 218A.260 (Use of confidential informants), were repealed when the Rules of Evidence were codified. 1990 Ky. Acts, ch. 88, § 92; 1992 Ky. Acts, ch. 324, § 33. Nor could the adoption of the KRE be construed as having impliedly repealed KRS 218A.280. The same enactment that adopted the KRE and repealed thirty-six other statutes also contained this disclaimer: No existing statutes except those listed in this Act shall be repealed or modified by this Act. 1990 Ky. Acts, ch. 88, § 91. We discern no legislative intent that KRS 218A.280 would not apply to the privilege defined in KRE 507 the same as it applied to its statutory predecessors. By analogy, Mullins v. Commonwealth, Ky., 956 S.W.2d 210 (1997), was a case in which the defendant's wife initially reported to the police that her husband had engaged in acts of sodomy with their 14-year-old babysitter. At trial, however, both the defendant and his wife claimed the husband-wife privilege, KRE 504. Though that privilege contains an exception for wrongful conduct perpetrated against the person of a minor child of either party to the marriage, KRE 504(c)(2)(B), it contains no exception for wrongful conduct perpetrated against the person of an unrelated minor child. However, KRS 620.050(2), which was enacted prior to the adoption of the KRE, created an exception to the husband-wife privilege, then compiled at KRS 421.210(1), in any proceeding involving a dependent, neglected or abused child. We held in Mullins that KRS 620.050(2) remained applicable as an exception to the husband-wife privilege defined in KRE 504. By the same reasoning, KRS 218A.280 remains applicable as an exception to the psychotherapist-patient privilege defined in KRE 507. But even though KRS 218A.280 applies here, it would not authorize a wholesale release of the entire record of Dr. Bunch's psychotherapeutic treatment of Appellant, but only of those entries that reflect a violation of KRS 218A.140(1). Cf. State ex rel. Buchman v. Stokes, 36 Ohio App.3d 109, 521 N.E.2d 515, 517 (1987); Wright and Graham, supra, § 5547 (2001 pocket part) (The [crime-fraud] exception should be limited to those communications that are relevant to the posited crime or fraud.).