Opinion ID: 155838
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Glass Case

Text: 10 Unlike Jaffee, the Glass case is a criminal prosecution in which the district court permitted the prosecution to use Mr. Glass' statement to his treating psychiatrist concluding it constituted the precise type of threat to a third party the Court distinguished in Jaffee 's footnote 19. However, like Jaffee, the statement arose in the course of Mr. Glass' treatment presumably in an atmosphere of confidence and trust in which Mr. Glass was willing to make a frank and complete disclosure of facts, emotions, memories, and fears. Id. at ----, 116 S.Ct. at 1928. When the statement was made, the treating psychiatrist did not contact authorities. We glean from the minimal details of this record the psychiatrist instead proposed a course of treatment for Mr. Glass presumably premised on Mr. Glass' frank disclosures. That is, viewed through the Jaffee lens, the record reflects Mr. Glass' confidential communication facilitat[ed] the provision of appropriate treatment for individuals suffering the effects of a mental or emotional problem. Id. at ----, 116 S.Ct. at 1929. 11 However, the government urges in a criminal context, when this evidentiary privilege clashes with the duty to warn, Jaffee 's rationale elevating the salutary benefits of treatment does not apply. It maintains Mr. Glass never contested the characterization of the statement as a threat under the statute. Indeed, Mr. Glass has conceded it was a threat. Thus, the government urges the privilege must yield in this precise situation where a serious threat of harm to the patient or to others can be averted only by means of a disclosure by the therapist. Id. at ---- n. 19, 116 S.Ct. at 1932 n. 19. 12 Jaffee, however, indicated the contours of the privilege would be fleshed out on a case-by-case basis. Id. at ----, 116 S.Ct. at 1932. In this case, the record discloses a statement made to a psychiatrist during a confidential session prompting the therapist to implement a course of treatment which included discharging Mr. Glass from hospital supervision. Taken by themselves, these circumstances are hardly an indication of a threat which can only be averted by means of disclosure. The record further discloses ten days elapsed before the Secret Service was contacted, triggering its interview of the psychotherapist. There is neither evidence of an affirmative effort by the psychotherapist to avert the threat of harm nor of how the Secret Service only averted the threat through its disclosure. That is, on the record before us, we have no basis upon which we can discern how ten days after communicating with his psychotherapist, Mr. Glass' statement was transformed into a serious threat of a harm which could only be averted by disclosure. Without further facts, we fail to see how this situation differs from that protected in Jaffee. 13 Contrary to the government's suggestion, we cannot fill that gap with our decision in Burtrum. 17 F.3d at 1299. In that case, defendant, charged with several counts of child abuse, sought to exclude testimony and records of the psychiatric treatment he received after the alleged incidents. However, the district court compelled defendant's psychotherapist to testify after applying a Second Circuit approach to weigh the public interest in protecting young children from sexual abuse against the evidentiary need for the psychiatric history. Defendant appealed, and we affirmed the court's denial of the testimonial privilege in the narrow context of a criminal child sexual abuse prosecution. 14 Hence, Burtrum is distinguishable. First, it was decided before Jaffee and acknowledged the split in the circuits over recognition of a psychotherapist/client privilege. Second, Burtrum addressed only the narrow issue whether to recognize the privilege in a criminal child sexual abuse context. To resolve that question within those contours, we held under a balancing of the need to protect this vulnerable segment of society, minor victims often intimidated by the legal system and fearful of testifying, against the quest for relevant evidence in the prosecution of child abuse cases, that significant evidentiary need compels the admission of this type of relevant evidence in child sexual abuse prosecutions. Id. at 1302. That is, a subset of the public good, the welfare of children, presented the sort of situation Jaffee anticipated. 3 However, Burtrum 's analysis cannot be extended here. 15 We therefore hold upon the record before us the psychotherapist-patient privilege announced in Jaffee is available to protect Mr. Glass' statements from compelled disclosure under Rule 501 of the Federal Rules of Evidence. Thus, on remand, the district court must proceed under Fed.R.Evid. 104(a) to determine whether, in the context of this case, the threat was serious when it was uttered and whether its disclosure was the only means of averting harm to the President when the disclosure was made. In particular, the court will want to hear Dr. Darbe's opinion of the seriousness of the threat as well as the opinion of any appropriate authority who deals with the protection of the President. The plea of guilty is VACATED, and the cause is remanded for further proceedings.