Opinion ID: 1536152
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Privilege/Immunity

Text: The crux of this case is whether appellees enjoyed either an absolute or qualified privilege to make the statements they made in their application for the search warrant and then voluntarily to share those statements with the news media. Although we have done this before, it would be helpful at the outset to define and distinguish these two kinds of privileges, or immunities. In Di Blasio v. Kolodner, 233 Md. 512, 522, 197 A.2d 245, (1964), we explained: An absolute privilege is distinguished from a qualified privilege in that the former provides immunity regardless of the purpose or motive of the defendant, or the reasonableness of his conduct, while the latter is conditioned upon the absence of malice and is forfeited if it is abused. See also Miner v. Novotny, 304 Md. 164, 167, 498 A.2d 269, 270 (1985). Appellees maintain that they have an absolute privilege with respect to statements made in an application for search warrant because such an application is part of the judicial process and this Court has long recognized that statements made in the course of the judicial process are protected by an absolute privilege that is not defeated even if the statements are made maliciously. Appellants contend that an application for a search warrant is not part of the judicial process and therefore defamatory statements in such an application are not absolutely privileged. The starting point for our analysis is a trilogy of cases decided on the same day in June, 1888. The first of those cases, Maulsby v. Reifsnider, 69 Md. 143, 14 A. 505 (1888) involved whether statements made by an attorney in the course of a judicial proceeding were subject to an absolute or qualified privilege. The court defined the practical difference in terms of whether the statements were relevant to the proceeding. If the privilege is absolute, relevance or irrelevance is immaterial; the only issue is whether they were made in the course of a judicial proceeding. If the privilege is qualified, the statements would not be protected unless they were relevant. Rejecting English precedent, which afforded an absolute privilege to attorneys' statements, the Court opted for the qualified privilege, holding that if counsel in the trial of a cause maliciously slanders a party, or witness or any other person in regard to a matter that has no reference or relation to, or connection with, the case before the Court, he is and ought to be answerable in an action by the party injured. Id. at 162, 14 A. at 510. (Emphasis in original). As we shall explain, the Court later modified that view somewhat. The second case, Hunckel v. Voneiff, 69 Md. 179, 14 A. 500 (1888) concerned the nature of the privilege possessed by a witness, and in contrast to the position taken in Maulsby with respect to an attorney, the Court concluded that a witness had an absolute privilege, explaining: The case now before us is not that of an advocate but of a witness, and in our opinion it is of the greatest importance to the administration of justice that witnesses should go upon the stand with their minds absolutely free from apprehension that they may subject themselves to an action of slander for what they may say while giving their testimony. Id. at 187, 14 A. at 501. (Emphasis in original). In reaching that conclusion, and in contrast to what it had done in Maulsby, the Court decided to follow the English approach, which provided an absolute privilege for witnesses, notwithstanding that the weight of then-existing American cases was in favor of a more limited privilege. The Court adopted not just the English decisions, but the law on this subject as they have laid it down, Id. at 193, 14 A. at 504, including the rationale for those decisions. For that, the Court turned in particular to two casesthe judges' response to the House of Lords in Dawkins v. Rokeby, Law Rep. 7 H.L., 744, and Chief Judge Cockburn's opinion in Seaman v. Netherclift, Law Rep., 2 C.P. Div., 53. It is clear from both of those cases that the absolute privilege afforded to witnesses under English law was limited to what he says or writes in giving evidence before a Court of justice, Hunckel, at 189, 14 A. at 502, quoting from Dawkins, to the extent of what he says in course of his examination,  Hunckel, at 189, 14 A. at 502, quoting from Seaman. The Court noted Chief Judge Cockburn's caveat that what he says before he enters or after he has left the witness-box is not privileged. Hunckel, 69 Md. at 190, 14 A. at 502. The rationale for the rule, as articulated in Dawkins, was that public policy requires that witnesses should give their testimony free from any fear of being harassed by an action on an allegation, whether true or false, that they acted from malice. Hunckel, at 189, 14 A. at 502, quoting from Dawkins. The third case, Bartlett v. Christhilf, 69 Md. 219, 14 A. 518 (1888) concerned the privilege to be accorded statements made by parties to a lawsuit in their pleadings and motions. In a way, it is the most relevant of the three cases because it was subsequently misconstrued by the Court of Special Appeals in Picone v. Talbott, 29 Md.App. 536, 349 A.2d 615 (1975) and has been misconstrued by appellees. In the course of a lawsuit brought by Muir against Whiting and Bartlett in the equity court in Baltimore, Bartlett and Christhilf were appointed by the court as co-receivers of the firm that apparently was the subject of that litigation. Several weeks later, Christhilf filed a petition in the underlying case alleging that Bartlett was unlawfully withholding assets from the receivership, obstructing collection of the firm's assets, and acting in contempt of the court's authority, and that he had embezzled money belonging to the firm. Bartlett answered the petition, but before any hearing could be held, the litigation that had produced the receivership was settled and dismissed. Bartlett then sued Christhilf for libel and malicious abuse of process. The issue presented, with respect to the libel count, was whether the statements in Christhilf's petition, filed in the equity case, were absolutely privileged. Adopting the approach taken in Hunckel, the Court held that those statements were protected by an absolute privilege. In that regard, the Court stated: It is stated in a work of high authority that an action for defamation will not lie for anything sworn or stated in the course of a judicial proceeding before a Court of competent jurisdiction, such as defamatory bills or proceedings filed in chancery, or in the ecclesiastical Courts, or affidavits containing false and scandalous assertions against others. Therefore, if a man goes before a justice of the peace and exhibits articles against the plaintiff containing divers false and scandalous charges concerning him, the plaintiff cannot have an action for a libel in respect of any matter contained in such articles, for the party preferring them has pursued the ordinary course of justice in such a case; and if actions should be permitted in such cases, those who have just cause for complaint would not dare to complain, for fear of infinite vexation.  Id. at 223-24, 14 A. at 518, quoting in part from 2 Addison on Torts, § 1092 ( Wood's Ed. ) (Emphasis added). The Court observed that there was a large collection of cases where parties have from time to time attempted to get damages for slanderous and malicious charges contained in affidavits made in the course of a judicial proceeding  but that in no one instance has the action been held to be maintainable. Bartlett, at 224, 14 A. at 519 (Emphasis added). More recently, the Court has revised some of the semantic distinctions, come to view the privilege possessed by counsel, witnesses, and parties as essentially the same and therefore as applying to both evidentiary and non-evidentiary statements, and to extend the absolute privilege to documents and reports prepared for use in judicial proceedings, even if not actually filed in the proceeding. Some of those revisions were announced in Kennedy v. Cannon, 229 Md. 92, 96-97, 182 A.2d 54, 57 (1962) where, after quoting at length from Maulsby (dealing with the privilege enjoyed by attorneys), the Court explained that [w]hat was characterized in that case as a qualified privilege for communications, conditioned on their being pertinent or relevant to a judicial proceeding, without regard to the motive of the speaker, is referred to by modern text writers and in case law as an absolute privilege. The Court continued: This absolute immunity extends to the judge as well as witnesses and parties to the litigation, for defamatory statements uttered in the course of a trial or contained in pleadings, affidavits, depositions, and other documents directly related to the case. (citation omitted). An absolute privilege is distinguished from a qualified privilege in that the former provides immunity regardless of the purpose or motive of the defendant, or the reasonableness of his conduct, while the latter is conditioned upon the absence of malice and is forfeited if it is abused. Kennedy, 229 Md. at 97, 182 A.2d at 57. The extension of the privilege to reports prepared for use in judicial proceedings was announced in Adams v. Peck, 288 Md. 1, 415 A.2d 292 (1980). Those cases involved actual judicial proceedingstestimony, argument of counsel, and pleadings and documents prepared for, filed, or presented in court. In several cases Gersh v. Ambrose, 291 Md. 188, 434 A.2d 547 (1981), Odyniec v. Schneider, 322 Md. 520, 526-28, 588 A.2d 786, 788-90 (1991), and Reichardt v. Flynn, 374 Md. 361, 823 A.2d 566 (2003)we recognized that the absolute privilege for judicial proceedings could apply in certain administrative proceedings as well, depending on (1) the nature of the public function of the proceeding, and (2) the adequacy of procedural safeguards which will minimize the occurrence of defamatory statements. Gersh v. Ambrose, supra, 291 Md. at 197, 434 A.2d at 551-52. None of those cases, however involved statements made in an application for an arrest or search warrant. The issue of whether statements made in a warrant application enjoy an absolute privilege, on the theory that an application presented to a judge is in the nature of a judicial proceeding, has never been decided by this Court, although the emphasized language quoted above from Bartlett v. Christhilf did lead the Court of Special Appeals, in Picone v. Talbott, supra, 29 Md.App. 536, 546, 349 A.2d 615, 620-21, to hold that statements made in an application for an arrest warrant were absolutely privileged. Appellees also rely on that language and on Picone. Some explanation is in order. As we observed, Bartlett v. Christhilf did not involve an application for a warrant, but rather a petition filed in court in an on-going lawsuit, which the Court held was protected by an absolute privilege. Consistent with its holding in the two other cases decided contemporaneously, the Court iterated the general rule that an action for defamation will not lie for anything sworn or stated in the course of a judicial proceeding before a Court of competent jurisdiction, such as defamatory bills or proceedings filed in chancery, or in the ecclesiastical Courts, or affidavits containing false and scandalous assertions against others. Bartlett, 69 Md. at 223-24, 14 A. at 518-19. Then follows, immediately, the language in question, that we italicized, regarding proceedings before a justice of the peace. Without any analysis, the Court of Special Appeals in Picone assumed that the example given of a man who goes before a justice of the peace and exhibits articles against the plaintiff containing divers false and scandalous charges concerning him must have referred to an application for an arrest warrant, for it relied on that language as direct precedent in holding that statements in such an application were absolutely privileged. A careful examination of the role and jurisdiction of justices of the peace in 1888 casts serious doubt on the validity of that assumption. As noted in Yantz v. Warden, 210 Md. 343, 347, 123 A.2d 601, 603 (1956), cert. denied, 352 U.S. 932, 77 S.Ct. 236, 1 L.Ed.2d 167, the office of justice of the peace dates back to colonial times. Justices of the peace served as conservators of the peace in their respective counties and had the jurisdiction conferred by law, which changed over time. They had power to issue both arrest and search warrants, but they also had trial jurisdiction in civil cases involving $100 or less and in misdemeanor criminal cases, and that appeared to be their principal function See Maryland Code (1888), Art. 52, dealing almost exclusively with the civil trial jurisdiction of the justices of the peace; also Armstrong Thomas, PROCEDURE IN JUSTICE CASES (1906); John H.B. Latrobe, THE JUSTICES' PRACTICE UNDER THE LAWS OF MARYLAND, (7th ed. 1880). See also State v. Ward, 95 Md. 118, 121, 51 A. 848, 849 (1902) and Hall v. State, 5 Md.App. 394, 396, 247 A.2d 548, 549 (1968). It was thus possible for a person to [go] before a justice of the peace and exhibit[] articles against the plaintiff containing divers false and scandalous charges concerning him in a wide variety of contexts. That statement in Bartlett, seized upon in Picone, has no special reference to applications for arrest or search warrants. It follows the general statement that an action for defamation will not lie for anything sworn or stated in the course of a judicial proceeding before a Court of competent jurisdiction (emphasis added) and, more likely than not, had reference to what was, in fact, before the Court in Bartlett a pleading or other document filed by a party in a pending judicial proceeding or one that inaugurated such a proceeding. We can think of no reason for the Court to go off on a tangent and express an opinion regarding a matter that was not then before it and that had no connection with the matter that was before it. At best, it would apply to a warrant application only if the presentation of such an application constitutes or is in the nature of a judicial proceeding for purposes of determining a privilege or immunity. In that regard, we note that, in Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 106 S.Ct. 1092, 89 L.Ed.2d 271 (1986), the Supreme Court, in an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, denied an absolute privilege for the procuring of an arrest warrant based on an affidavit that failed to establish probable cause. Rejecting the officer's attempt to analogize his application for an arrest warrant to the seeking of an indictment by a prosecutor, which, in Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 96 S.Ct. 984, 47 L.Ed.2d 128 (1976), the Court had held to be absolutely privileged, the Malley Court observed that, although a vital part of the administration of criminal justice, the act of applying for a warrant is further removed from the judicial phase of criminal proceedings than the act of a prosecutor in seeking an indictment and that the judicial process will on the whole benefit from a rule of qualified rather than absolute immunity. Malley, 475 U.S. at 342-43, 106 S.Ct. at 1097, 89 L.Ed.2d at 279-80. Perhaps more to the point, the Court observed that the distinction between a search warrant and an arrest warrant would not make a difference in the degree of immunity accorded the officer who applied for the warrant. Id. at 344 n. 6, 106 S.Ct. at 1098 n. 6, 89 L.Ed.2d at 280 n. 6. See also Kalina v. Fletcher, 522 U.S. 118, 118 S.Ct. 502, 139 L.Ed.2d 471 (1997) (denying absolute immunity to a prosecutor for making false statements in an application for arrest warrant). [9] Malley is both instructive and persuasive, as, notwithstanding that it was a § 1983 action and not one for defamation, it rests on a solid common law foundation. As we did in Gill v. Ripley, 352 Md. 754, 768, 724 A.2d 88, 95 (1999), we acknowledge and adopt the precept confirmed in Burns v. Reed, 500 U.S. 478, 486, 111 S.Ct. 1934, 1939, 114 L.Ed.2d 547, 558 (1991) that the official seeking absolute immunity bears the burden of showing that such immunity is justified for the function in question, because [t]he presumption is that qualified rather than absolute immunity is sufficient to protect government officials in the exercise of their duties. An application for a search warrant may be said to be in the nature of a judicial proceeding because the application must be made to a judge and because the issuance of a warrant is a judicial act. On the other hand, unlike the kinds of statements to which we have accorded an absolute privilege, an application for search warrant, at least in the ordinary case, is not made in the course of an existing judicial proceeding and does not inaugurate or necessarily lead to one. It is, as the Malley Court concluded, several steps removed from a judicial proceeding. Moreover, the presentation of a search warrant application is almost always ex parte, often occurring at the judge's home during the evening hours, with little or no ability to test the accuracy of the affiant's averments. Absent some knowledge to the contrary, the judge necessarily assumes good faith and truthfulness on the part of the affiant and looks to see only whether those averments, assuming them to be true, suffice to establish probable cause to believe that incriminating evidence will be found at the place or on the person to be searched. See Volodarsky v. Tarachanskaya, 397 Md. 291, 306-07, 916 A.2d 991, 1000 (2007); also Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 169, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 2683, 57 L.Ed.2d 667, 680 (1978): The usual reliance of our legal system on adversary proceedings itself should be an indication that an ex parte inquiry is likely to be less vigorous. The magistrate has no acquaintance with the information that may contradict the good faith and reasonable basis of the affiant's allegations. The pre-search proceeding will frequently be marked by haste because of the understandable desire to act before the evidence disappears; this urgency will not always permit the magistrate to make an extended independent examination of the affiant or other witnesses. The normal trappings of a judicial proceeding are thus lacking. In that regard, the presentation of an application for search warrant may be more akin to an investigatory proceeding rather than a judicial one. Although a warrant application is not in the nature of an administrative proceeding, as in Gersh and Reichardt, it is, we think, sufficiently removed from the normal judicial proceeding to invoke the caveats noted in those cases; i.e., in determining whether an absolute privilege should apply to defamatory statements made in a search warrant application, we should look to the nature of the public function of the proceeding and the adequacy of procedural safeguards that will minimize the occurrence of defamatory statements. In doing so, we are convinced, as was the Malley Court, that defamatory statements made i n an application for search warrant should be protected by a qualified, not an absolute, privilege. A critical underpinning to allowing an absolute privilege for statements made in the course of a judicial proceeding is that, because such a proceeding is normally adversarial in nature, there is usually the ability to test the veracity of those statements and to publicly rebut them. Witnesses can be cross-examined; contradictory evidence can be presented. A neutral fact-finder, after examining all of the evidence presented, can decide what is believable and what is not. Through that process, false statements can be exposed for what they are. Even in sub-proceedings that may themselves be ex parte in nature, such as requests for temporary restraining orders, the opportunity exists later in the case to expose and sanction false statements. That is the counterweight to allowing parties, witnesses, and attorneys to speak freely in the course of judicial proceedings, unhampered by the fear of being sued for what they say. That counterweight simply does not exist with respect to search warrant applications, and that affects both the public nature of the proceeding and the search for procedural safeguards to minimize defamatory statements. Although the application must be supported by an affidavit under oath or affirmation, the process is not adversarial; nor is it an engine for the discovery of truth. The judge hears only one side of the story told by the police, who are seeking a necessary permission to invade a Constitutionally-protected zone of privacy, and, as noted, the judge often has no practical ability to determine the veracity of the affiant's allegations. We denied an absolute privilege in a somewhat analogous situation in McDermott v. Hughley, 317 Md. 12, 561 A.2d 1038 (1989), where, following a meeting between a police employee and his supervisor, called to discuss the employee's mental status, a psychologist who was present at the meeting sent a report to the employer containing defamatory statements. In a subsequent defamation action, the psychologist argued that the situation was akin to an administrative proceeding and that he had an absolute privilege. We rejected that argument, pointing out that, unlike a judicial or administrative proceeding, there was no public hearing adversary in nature; no compellable witnesses were sworn or cross-examined; no reviewable opinion or analysis was generated; and, most significantly, [the plaintiff] did not have the opportunity to present his side of the story. Id. at 26, 561 A.2d at 1045. In Gersh v. Ambrose, supra, 291 Md. 188, 434 A.2d 547, we denied absolute immunity for defamatory statements made at a public hearing. Compare Miner v. Novotny, supra, 304 Md. 164, 498 A.2d 269 (absolute privilege allowed for brutality complaint made against deputy sheriff that was subject to testing in administrative hearing under Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights law); Odyniec v. Schneider, supra, 322 Md. 520, 588 A.2d 786 (absolute privilege for statements made in connection with statutory health claims arbitration proceeding); Reichardt v. Flynn, supra, 374 Md. 361, 823 A.2d 566 (absolute privilege for complaint made against teacher that was subject to testing in administrative hearings before county and State school boards). The rationale for being cautious about extending an absolute privilege to an ex parte search warrant proceeding was well-stated in Franks v. Delaware, supra, 438 U.S. at 168, 98 S.Ct. at 2682, 57 L.Ed.2d at 680: [t]he requirement that a warrant not issue `but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation,' would be reduced to a nullity if a police officer was able to use deliberately falsified allegations to demonstrate probable cause, and, having misled the magistrate, then was able to remain confident that the ploy was worthwhile. Unlike statements made in the course of judicial proceedings, or even administrative contested case proceedings subject to the protections of an Administrative Procedure Act, statements made in a search warrant application may never be subject to testing, notwithstanding the prospect of a Franks hearing. Indeed, their veracity is not likely ever to be tested in a criminal proceeding unless (1) they concern a person who is subsequently arrested and charged, (2) evidence seized in the search is offered into evidence against the person, and (3) the defendant can show, through evidence, that the statements were not just false but were deliberate misstatements or were made with reckless disregard of truth or falsity. This case is a good example: the warrant application was made on December 29, 2005, and eighteen months later, there has yet to be any criminal proceeding instituted against appellees, and, so far as this record reveals, there appears to be no continuing investigation into their conduct. The allegedly false statements made to the judge and leaked to the press remain out there, with no ability on the part of appellants, outside a defamation action, to prove that they were false and maliciously made. For these reasons, we hold that statements made in an application for search warrant are not protected by an absolute privilege. [10] As noted, police officers are public officials and therefore enjoy the common law immunity possessed by such officials. Williams v. Mayor & City Council of Baltimore, 359 Md. 101, 137-39, 753 A.2d 41, 60-62 (2000); Bradshaw v. Prince George's County, 284 Md. 294, 302-03, 396 A.2d 255, 260-61 (1979). That immunity protects the officer from liability for non-malicious negligent conduct committed in the performance of discretionary acts in furtherance of the officer's official duties. See Muthukumarana v. Montgomery County, 370 Md. 447, 479, 805 A.2d 372, 391 (2002); Lovelace v. Anderson, 366 Md. 690, 704-05, 785 A.2d 726, 734 (2001); James v. Prince George's County, 288 Md. 315, 323, 418 A.2d 1173, 1178 (1980). As we recently reconfirmed in Lee v. Cline, 384 Md. 245, 258-59, 863 A.2d 297, 305 (2004), however, the Maryland common law qualified immunity enjoyed by public officials in the performance of discretionary acts is quite limited and is generally applicable only in negligence actions or defamation actions based on allegedly negligent conduct. (Emphasis added). It does not apply to liability based on most so-called `intentional torts.' Id. See also DiPino v. Davis, 354 Md. 18, 49, 729 A.2d 354, 370-71 (1999). The complaint against appellees charges knowing, intentional, and malicious, not negligent, conduct. On those allegations, the complaint was not subject to dismissal on the basis of common law qualified immunity. In addition to the common law qualified immunity, Baltimore City police officers enjoy an indirect statutory qualified immunity under LGTCA. In contrast to the protection afforded to State personnel under the State Tort Claims Act, Maryland Code, § 12-105 of the State Govt. Article and CJP § 5-522(b), [11] local government employees do not possess a direct immunity from liability for their tortious conduct under LGTCA. They may be sued, and judgments may be entered against them. The protection afforded by LGTCA is two-fold. If the action alleges that the conduct was within the scope of the defendant's employment, the local government must provide a legal defense for the employee. CJP § 5-302(a). In addition, unless the employee is found to have acted with actual malice, the plaintiff may not execute on a judgment recovered against the employee, CJP § 5-302(b), but, rather, subject to certain limits, the local government is liable on the judgment. [12] That protection may be broader than the common law immunity in that it does not appear to exclude liability for intentional torts, so long as they were committed within the scope of employment and without actual malice. Because of the construct of LGTCA, however, the complaint against appellees is not subject to dismissal by reason of this indirect statutory immunity. That immunity will have relevance only if a judgment is entered against appellees. Finally, we turn to the question of what immunity, if any, appellees have with respect to the alleged disclosure to the news media of defamatory averments in the warrant application. As noted, the complaint charges that the false statements were leaked by the Defendants to members of the media for the express purpose of causing publication of the false statements. Surely, there is no absolute privilege or immunity for that kind of conduct; police officers cannot have a greater privilege to disseminate defamatory material to the news media than they have to include it in an application presented to a judge. Whether dissemination of defamatory material to the news media is protected by a qualified privilege depends on (1) whether it is part of the officer's official duties to make such a dissemination, and (2) whether the officer acts with malice in doing so. To the extent there is a standard, it appears to be stated in Restatement (Second) of Torts, § 598A: An occasion makes a publication conditionally privileged if an inferior administrative officer of a state or any of its subdivisions who is not entitled to an absolute privilege makes a defamatory communication required or permitted in the performance of his official duties. That standard was applied in Rippett v. Bemis, 672 A.2d 82 (Me.1996), a case that arose out of a publicized report by a convicted felon that the police had improperly returned to him a rifle that, due to his status as a convicted felon, he was not entitled to possess. A detective charged with investigating that claim appeared on television and reported that the charge was false, that the rifle had been given to the felon's wife, whereupon the wife sued for defamation. Reversing a summary judgment for the detective, the court adopted the principle stated in Restatement (Second) of Torts, § 598A. Noting that there was a departmental policy prohibiting public statements regarding departmental investigations, the Maine court concluded that there was at least a genuine issue of fact as to whether the detective's remarks were required or permitted in the performance of his official duties, and that made summary judgment inappropriate. The court went on to note, as does Comment a to § 598A, that the conditional privilege may be lost by the publishers's knowledge or reckless disregard as to the falsity of the statements, or by the publication of the defamatory matter for some improper purpose. A Kentucky court cited § 598A in holding that a police chief, accused of defaming another police officer by appearing on television and accusing the officer of being a racist, did not enjoy an absolute privilege, but only a qualified one. See Lanier v. Higgins, 623 S.W.2d 914 (Ky.App.1981). The court noted that the chief was not involved in a judicial proceeding and that the communication was not made in the discharge of any statutory duty. Massachusetts has been even less generous to police officers who make defamatory statements to the press. In Draghetti v. Chmielewski, 416 Mass. 808, 626 N.E.2d 862 (1994), a police chief was sued for defamation based on remarks he made to a newspaper reporter regarding an investigation into whether another police officer had violated certain ethical rules. Appealing a judgment for the plaintiff, the defendant claimed that, as police chief, he had a duty, and therefore a conditional privilege, to speak to the press about the matter. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rejected that defense, concluding that a police chief has no official duty to report internal investigations to the press. Id. at 867. In those cases where the court had recognized a conditional privilege, the statements were made to a narrow group who shared an interest in the communication. In none of them, the court said, were the defamatory statements made to a newspaper of general circulation. Id. Compare Burke v. Town of Walpole, 405 F.3d 66 (1st Cir.2005), where the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit concluded that Massachusetts would likely recognize a qualified privilege for statements made by a police chief to a group of concerned citizens. Some guidance in this area may also be found in Buckley v. Fitzsimmons, 509 U.S. 259, 113 S.Ct. 2606, 125 L.Ed.2d 209 (1993). In that case, a prosecutor was sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for (1) fabricating evidence during a lengthy investigation and eventually obtaining an indictment upon the presentation of that fabricated evidence to the grand jury, and (2) making false assertions, including of the fabricated evidence, at a press conference held to announce the indictment. The Court concluded that the prosecutor had only qualified immunity in both situations. As to the first, it viewed the prosecutor's role as more of an investigator than an advocate for the State and thus accorded the same qualified immunity that a detective would have. As to the second, which is the more relevant here, the Court confirmed that while prosecutors, like all attorneys, were entitled to absolute immunity from defamation liability for statements made during the course of judicial proceedings and relevant to them . . . most statements made out of court received only good faith immunity. Id. at 277, 113 S.Ct. at 2617-18, 125 L.Ed.2d at 228-29. Following the functional approach that it had previously taken with respect to privileges, the Court added that [c]omments to the media have no functional tie to the judicial process just because they are made by a prosecutor and that, although statements to the press may be an integral part of a prosecutor's job and may serve a vital public function, they do not involve the initiation of a prosecution, the presentation of the State's case in court, or actions preparatory for these functions. Id, at 277-78, 113 S.Ct. at 2617-18, 125 L.Ed.2d at 229. [13] We believe that the principle set forth in § 598A of the Restatement provides the proper balance. To the extent that a police officer may qualify as an inferior administrative officer of the State or a subdivision of the State, the officer has a qualified privilege to make a defamatory communication required or permitted in the performance of his [or her] official duties. [14] That privilege, as we observed, is subject to being lost if it is abused  if the officer knows that the statements are false or makes them with reckless disregard of whether they are true or false, or makes them for some improper purpose.