Opinion ID: 1345745
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 20

Heading: Psychotherapist-patient and Attorney-client Privileges.

Text: After an in camera hearing at the first penalty trial, the trial court ruled that an exception to the psychotherapist-patient privilege [27] permitted disclosure of defendant's threats to kill, or to have killed, Ms. Gawronski's brother and the employer of defendant's former wife. (9) (See fn. 28.) That ruling was reaffirmed and defendant's objection, that the attorney-client privilege [28] nonetheless applied, was overruled immediately before admission of the testimony of Dr. Weinberger, to whom defendant had made those threats. The court applied the psychotherapist-patient privilege exception of Evidence Code section 1024: There is no privilege under this article if the psychotherapist has reasonable cause to believe that the patient is in such mental or emotional condition as to be dangerous to himself or to the person or property of another and that disclosure of the communication is necessary to prevent the threatened danger. The judge did not explain the basis for overruling the attorney-client privilege claim, but did state that he was not ruling that defendant had waived either privilege.