Privilege ruling on threat to kill President [9th Circuit] News
Privilege ruling on threat to kill President [9th Circuit]

US v. Romo, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, July 5, 2005 [ruling that the prison therapist of a Montana inmate did not violate the psychologist-pateint privilege when he contacted the Secret Service to report a letter the inmate wrote threatening to kill President Bush]. Excerpt:

Robert Romo appeals his conviction for threatening the President in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 871(a). Although he confessed to a licensed counselor that he made such a threat, he now claims that the counselor's trial testimony was admitted in violation of the psychotherapist-patient privilege. We conclude that the testimony was not privileged because Romo's statements to the counselor did not occur during the course of diagnosis or treatment. We are not persuaded that Romo's challenge to the testimony of the Director of Mail Analysis for the White House merits reversal, nor does Romo's challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence withstand scrutiny in light of the substantial evidence of his knowing and willful threats against the President.

Read the full text of the opinion here [PDF]. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

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