Opinion ID: 503768
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Estate's Demonstration of Need

Text: 35 In support of its motion for disclosure, the estate argues that it requires access to the presentence report and the related documents so that it can determine whether it has a cause of action for negligence based upon the probation service's failure to warn Weissich of the threat posed to him by Schlette. The government argues that this is nothing more than a request for disclosure made to facilitate a civil lawsuit, and as such it is an insufficient showing of need on which to predicate an order releasing an otherwise confidential court record. 36 In general, we agree with the government. Presentence reports should not be made available to civil plaintiffs to save them time in preparing lawsuits. However, a central element in the showing required of a third person seeking disclosure is the degree to which the information in the presentence report cannot be obtained from other sources. United States v. Charmer Indus., Inc., 711 F.2d 1164, 1177 (2d Cir.1983). In the present case, unlike Charmer, the information contained in the presentence report cannot be obtained elsewhere. It is what is in the report, and the related documents, that is important. The government argues that the estate can depose Schlette's probation officers and the psychiatrist who evaluated him and obtain this information. These procedures, however, will not produce the report. The theory of the estate's contemplated action against the probation service is that the probation service knew Schlette posed a threat to Weissich and did nothing about it. We express no opinion on whether the estate may state a claim based upon this theory. For purposes of considering disclosure of the requested documents, however, it is sufficient that the requested documents are relevant to a contemplated claim and that the information contained in them cannot be obtained elsewhere. If the probation service knew of Schlette's threats to kill Weissich and failed to include this information in its report to the court, this could be an important fact. If the probation service knew of Schlette's threat to kill Weissich and reported it to the court, and the court decided Schlette should be placed on probation, this is also relevant. It may be the case that the probation service had no information whatsoever to suggest that at the time Schlette was placed on probation for the firearm violation he was a danger to Weissich. But whatever information is actually contained in the report, it is the report itself, and the related documents (the psychiatric report and the postsentence probation report) which are relevant to the estate's contemplated action. 37 We conclude that the estate has made a sufficient threshold showing of a legitimate need for disclosure of the presentence report, the psychiatric report, and the postsentence probation report. As with the newspaper's request for disclosure, neither the court nor the government has articulated any valid reason for maintaining confidentiality of these documents. IV