Court Opinion

ID: 9669457
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:56:43.217695+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:56.867400
License: Public Domain

DONIELSON, Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. The majority opinion focuses only on the narrow question of whether the results of the MMPI test are inadmissible by reason of the doctor-patient privilege. However, I believe the controversy before us implicates the broader issue of the test’s reliability for evidentiary purposes. Because we are to affirm the trial court if any reason for affirmance appears in the record, I believe this broader issue must be examined.
Upon my examination of this issue, I find the MMPI test is no more reliable as an evidentiary tool than the polygraph test is. Finding the test too unreliable to be admissible, I would affirm the trial court’s exclusion of the evidence proffered in this case. Psychologists should be encouraged to use the MMPI test as a clinical tool for the diagnosis and treatment of the alleged victim, and prosecutors should be encouraged to use this test as an investigatory tool in determining the veracity of the complaining witness’s account. Until the test’s reliability is more clearly established, however, it should not be used to generate evidence for introduction at trial.
I would affirm.