Opinion ID: 546134
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Common Law Privileges

Text: 19 Wood urges this court to recognize exceptions to the Omnibus Crime Control Act based on two common law privileges. The first is a state law privilege that operates as a defense against libel or slander. In Bergman v. Hupy, 64 Wis.2d 747, 221 N.W.2d 898 (1974), the Wisconsin supreme court held that there is an absolute privilege against civil suit for statements made to a district attorney in the course of the investigation of a crime and a conditional privilege for statements made without malice to police officers in the course of the investigation of criminal activity. The purpose of the privileges is to promote the interest of justice in apprehending and convicting criminals. Id. at 751, 221 N.W.2d at 901. 20 Appellant Wood cites Simpson v. Simpson, 490 F.2d 803 (5th Cir.1974), in support of his argument that we should recognize as defenses to suit under the Omnibus Crime Control Act the common law privileges protecting statements made to law enforcement agents. In Simpson, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that the Omnibus Crime Control Act did not provide a remedy for a husband's interception of his estranged wife's telephone conversations with third parties. The court reasoned that the language of the Act is not sufficiently definite to give notice that such action is illegal and its legislative history focus[es] on crime control ... [and] contains no clear indication that Congress intended to intrude into the marital relation within the marital home. Id. at 807. 21 Although Simpson can be interpreted to read a common law marital privilege into the Omnibus Crime Control Act, the reasons for recognizing a marital privilege provide no support for recognizing a similar exception for the common law privileges protecting statements made to law enforcement agents in furtherance of criminal investigations. The very nature of the Act is to impose limitations on the effectiveness of law enforcement agents in the interests of protecting the privacy of citizens. For example, the Act provides that the contents of unauthorized recordings or evidence derived from them may not be entered into evidence in any trial. 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2515. The Act represents Congress's careful balancing between the interests of the enforcement of criminal laws and the assurance of privacy in oral and wire communications. To recognize a common law privilege as Wood suggests would upset that balance. 22 Second, appellant requests us to recognize an exception based on the attorney-client privilege. This request amounts to an argument that because a client gives an attorney some information in confidence, the attorney has the right to disclose that information to anyone. Merely to state the argument is to disclose its lack of merit. 23 Therefore, we affirm the district court's refusal to recognize these common law privileges as defenses in a civil suit under the Omnibus Crime Control Act.