Opinion ID: 1121458
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Waiver of Privileges

Text: (25) Since Mayland was appointed to assist defendant's counsel under section 1017, all communications between defendant and Mayland were protected by two distinct privileges: the psychotherapist-patient privilege and the attorney-client privilege. (Evid. Code, งง 952, 954, 1010-1027; People v. Clark (1990) 50 Cal.3d 583, 619-623 [268 Cal. Rptr. 399, 789 P.2d 127]; People v. Caro (1988) 46 Cal.3d 1035, 1060, fn. 11 [251 Cal. Rptr. 757, 761 P.2d 680].) Defendant correctly concedes that at the time he tendered his mental defense at trial, he waived the applicable psychotherapist-patient privilege. Defendant argues, however, that the protection of the attorney-client privilege was never waived. The Attorney General asserts that defendant waived the attorney-client privilege protecting his statements to Mayland when he called Mayland to testify during the suppression hearing. The Attorney General is correct. By calling Mayland to the stand during the suppression hearing, defendant manifested an intent that his communications with Mayland be revealed to third parties and that the attorney-client privilege be waived. (See, e.g., People v. Haskett (1990) 52 Cal.3d 210, 243 [276 Cal. Rptr. 80, 801 P.2d 323].) Defendant counters that, under the circumstances of this case, the testimony in question was impermissibly compelled in violation of the federal and state Constitutions. Defendant first urges that the statute governing the waiver of the attorney-client privilege specifically excepts compelled statements from its scope. Evidence Code section 912, subdivision (a) states in relevant part that the attorney-client privilege is waived with respect to a communication protected by such privilege if any holder of the privilege, without coercion, has disclosed a significant part of the communication or has consented to such disclosure made by anyone. [28] Relying primarily upon Simmons v. United States (1968) 390 U.S. 377, 393-394 [19 L.Ed.2d 1247, 1258-1259, 88 S.Ct. 967] (hereafter Simmons ), defendant argues that Mayland's testimony was coerced or compelled when defendant proffered it in order to protect his Fifth Amendment rights. In Simmons the United States Supreme Court established a rule of use immunity for a defendant's testimony in a suppression hearing. In that case, the defendant was charged with armed robbery. A critical piece of evidence against defendant was a suitcase containing implements and fruits of the robbery. The suitcase was seized by the police without a warrant during a search of the home of defendant's mother. At a suppression hearing, the defendant testified that he owned the suitcase in order to establish his standing to assert his Fourth Amendment right to exclude this evidence. The suppression motion was denied and defendant's testimony regarding ownership of the suitcase was admitted at trial to prove his guilt. ( Simmons, supra, 390 U.S. at pp. 379-381 [19 L.Ed.2d at pp. 1251-1252].) The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that defendant's testimony at the suppression hearing was compelled within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment and could not be used at trial to prove his guilt. (390 U.S. at pp. 393-394 [19 L.Ed.2d at pp. 1258-1259].) The high court reasoned defendant should not be placed in the position of being forced to sacrifice one constitutional right (the protections of the Fifth Amendment's self-incrimination clause) in order to attempt to vindicate another constitutional right (the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures). (390 U.S. at pp. 393-394 [19 L.Ed.2d at pp. 1258-1259].) This court has also sought to ameliorate the difficult choices facing defendants who wish to testify in pretrial proceedings. We have extended use immunity to defendants' pretrial testimony in probation revocation hearings and juvenile status hearings that occur before trial. ( People v. Coleman (1975) 13 Cal.3d 867, 889 [120 Cal. Rptr. 384, 533 P.2d 1024]; Ramona R. v. Superior Court (1985) 37 Cal.3d 802, 809, 811 [210 Cal. Rptr. 204, 693 P.2d 789].) Neither defendant nor the Attorney General provided as authority any case in which use immunity was granted for the testimony of a psychiatrist at a pretrial suppression hearing. After reviewing the policies underlying such use immunities, we decline to find the Simmons rule applicable to the situation at hand. (Cf. People v. Haskett, supra, 52 Cal.3d at p. 244 [rejecting request for use immunity during retrial to bar use of psychiatric testimony offered by defense in first trial on the basis of lack of authority to support the request].) Assuming without deciding that the waiver of the attorney-client privilege is of constitutional dimensions pursuant to the Sixth Amendment and its state counterpart, we are not faced in this case with an intolerable conflict between constitutional rights. Defendant was not compelled to waive the attorney-client privilege shielding his revelations to Mayland in order to support his suppression motion. As illustrated by the fact that mental health experts other than Mayland testified at trial, experts, who were not part of the defense team, could have been readied and called to testify during the pretrial hearing, thus obviating the asserted constitutional dilemma. The presentation of Mayland's testimony was a tactical choice that was not impermissibly coerced or compelled. Defendant also appears to contend that his Fifth Amendment rights, as well as his Sixth Amendment rights, were infringed by the use of Mayland's testimony. This argument is without merit. First, defendant's statements to Mayland in no way were coerced or compelled, nor did they involve any state action; they were voluntarily made. ( People v. Clark, supra, 50 Cal.3d at p. 620, fn. 30.) Second, defendant waived his Fifth Amendments rights with respect to statements made during psychiatric examinations requested by or agreed to by the defense when he placed his mental state in issue during trial. ( People v. Williams (1988) 44 Cal.3d 883, 961-962 [245 Cal. Rptr. 336, 751 P.2d 395]; Buchanan v. Kentucky (1987) 483 U.S. 402, 421-424 [97 L.Ed.2d 336, 354-357, 107 S.Ct. 2906].) [29] Third, the jury was admonished that the statements in question could not be considered for the truth of their content. ( In re Spencer (1965) 63 Cal.2d 400, 412 [46 Cal. Rptr. 753, 406 P.2d 33].) In summary, defendant waived the attorney-client privilege protecting his statements to Mayland when Mayland took the stand at the pretrial hearing and revealed them. The defendant waived the psychotherapist-patient privilege and the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination when he raised his rage reaction defense at trial. At that point, Mayland's testimony was not protected by any applicable privilege or constitutional right and could be used by the prosecutor for impeachment or rebuttal. The result reached by the trial court was correct. For this reason, it is not necessary to address defendant's claims of prejudice resulting from the use of this testimony to impeach defense witnesses.