Opinion ID: 510217
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Friedman: Lindenauer's Psychiatric Records

Text: 187 The late Borough President's importance at trial stemmed not so much from what he said as from what he did, while Lindenauer's credibility was at the heart of the verdicts. Friedman accordingly contends that the district court committed reversible error when it quashed trial subpoenas issued to two psychiatrists who had treated Lindenauer. Again, we disagree. 188 On June 2, 1986, Friedman issued trial subpoenas pursuant to Fed.R.Crim.P. 17(c) to Herbert Kalmanoff, M.D., and John Diamond, M.D., directing them to produce [a]ll medical and psychiatric records relating to Geoffrey Lindenauer. Lindenauer immediately intervened and moved to quash the subpoenas on the ground that they violated the psychotherapist-patient privilege. The district court thereupon conducted an examination in camera of materials produced by Dr. Kalmanoff. These included a letter of recommendation written by Dr. Kalmanoff on behalf of Lindenauer and Dr. Kalmanoff's handwritten notes of his psychotherapy sessions with Lindenauer held between November 1970 and January 1984. After inspecting the documents, the district court granted Lindenauer's motion to quash with respect to Dr. Kalmanoff's notes on the ground that they were privileged. United States v. Friedman, 636 F.Supp. 462 (S.D.N.Y. 1986). Relying upon his examination of the notes and upon our decision in In re Doe, 711 F.2d 1187, 1193-94 (2d Cir.1983), Judge Knapp concluded that 189 the material here subpoenaed contains the type of intensely personal communications that the psychotherapist-patient privilege is designed to protect. The notes contain extremely personal statements made by the patient, recollections of past experiences, notes of dreams, as well as observations of the patient by the doctor. It is clear that a real, lasting and professional psychotherapist-patient relationship existed between Lindenauer and his doctor. Further, unlike [United States v.] Lindstrom, [698 F.2d 1154 (11th Cir.1983),] nothing in our investigation of these materials suggests to us any impediment to Lindenauer's ability to know, comprehend and relate the truth. 190 636 F.Supp. at 463. 191 Having ourselves examined Dr. Kalmanoff's notes under seal, we agree with Judge Knapp that a true psychotherapist-patient relationship existed and that nothing in the psychotherapist's notes casts any doubt upon Lindenauer's ability to understand and relate the truth. We need not, however, address either Judge Knapp's conclusion that the notes were privileged or the broader question left open in Doe, namely whether we should recognize a psychotherapist-patient privilege. We are confident that even if the Kalmanoff notes were not privileged and the quashing of the subpoena was error, the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. See Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. 673, 681, 106 S.Ct. 1431, 1436, 89 L.Ed.2d 674 (1986). The notes contain little, if any, material that would have been useful in cross-examining Lindenauer. Indeed, Judge Knapp also found that he would not have permitted use of the notes at trial regardless of any claim of privilege. 636 F.Supp. at 462. 192 Moreover, whether or not the notes were relevant, if admitted, they could not have had even a marginal impact upon the jury's assessment of Lindenauer's credibility. In particular, Lindenauer's guilty plea and the pendency of his sentencing were brought out on direct examination. Defense counsel also cross-examined Lindenauer on numerous acts of dishonesty he had committed that were completely unrelated to his crimes at the PVB. Lindenauer was asked, for example, about his purchase of two fraudulent graduate degrees, about his operation of a sham psychotherapy clinic, about his having sexual relations with patients at that clinic, and about whether negative publicity surrounding sexual practices at his sham clinic had resulted in its closing. Thus, [i]f [Lindenauer] was an otherwise unimpeached witness, [his] psychiatric history might have been of some value to the defense other than as a legal point to be preserved for an appeal, but he wasn't and it isn't. United States v. Bari, 750 F.2d at 1179. In addition, however unsavory Lindenauer might have appeared to the jury, his story on the witness stand was corroborated in many important respects by other witnesses, including Joseph Delario, Robert Richards and Dr. Jerome Driesen. Accordingly, any error in quashing the subpoena of Lindenauer's psychiatric records was harmless.