|
|
| Court rules counselor can report inmate's plan to kill president |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 07/11/2005 |
|
A federal appeals court last Tuesday upheld a Montana inmate's conviction for writing a letter threatening to kill President Bush, and then telling his therapist about his plans. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that using the counselor's testimony against the inmate did not represent a breach of psychologist-patient privilege because they spoke outside a therapy session. In 2002, Robert Allen Romo told his prison counselor in Dawson County, Mont., that he sent a letter to the White House threatening to put a bullet in Bush's head. The therapist told Romo he was obligated to report his statements, and called the Secret Service. Romo, who was doing time for a prison break, sued on the grounds that his therapist's testimony should not have been admitted as evidence. In addition to the counselor's statements, a Montana jury convicted him based on a second prison document and interviews with correctional officers in which Romo outlined his wish to kill the president. Two weeks ago, Romo was sentenced to 37 months in prison for a second threatening letter he sent to a U.S. district court judge. The unanimous three-judge panel upheld the Montana district court's ruling which found that Romo's letter alone constituted a "true threat" against the president. The California-based appeals court also ruled that "Romo's statements to the counselor did not occur during the course of diagnosis or treatment." Though she concurred with the ruling, Judge Betty Binns Fletcher argued that Romo's disclosures to his therapist, Donald LaPlante, should have been privileged because their meeting "mirrors the characteristics of a counseling session." James E. Seykora, the Justice Department attorney in Billings, Mont., who prosecuted Romo, did not immediately return calls for comment. This is the second recent case involving threats against the president that has come before the court, which sets precedent for nine Western states. In the first case, United States v. Lincoln, the inmate also made written threats against the president in a therapy session. The court ruled that evidence was inadmissible since it fell under the psychotherapist-patient privilege, and ultimately overturned Jonathan Lincoln's conviction stating the inmate's letter to the White House constituted "political hyperbole," not a direct threat. |
MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
|
Comments:
Login to let us know what you think