Commonwealth v. Lloyd

567 A.2d 1357, 523 Pa. 427, 1989 Pa. LEXIS 430
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 19, 1989
Docket67 E.D.Appeal Dkt. 1988
StatusPublished
Cited by44 cases

This text of 567 A.2d 1357 (Commonwealth v. Lloyd) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Lloyd, 567 A.2d 1357, 523 Pa. 427, 1989 Pa. LEXIS 430 (Pa. 1989).

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT

McDERMOTT, Justice.

The appellant Stephen Lloyd appeals by allowance the order of the Superior Court affirming the judgment of sentence of the Common Pleas Court of Philadelphia. We reverse.

[429]*429On August 2, 1985, after a four-day trial, a guilty verdict was returned against appellant on charges of rape, statutory rape, indecent assault, and corruption of minors. After denial of post-verdict motions and appellant’s motion to reconsider sentence, he was sentenced to an aggregate term of imprisonment of eight and one-half to seventeen years. The judgment of sentence was timely appealed to the Superior Court, which affirmed. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Stephen Lloyd, 367 Pa.Super. 139, 532 A.2d 828 (1987).

The record reveals that during the summer of 1983, appellant was a supervisor in a government-funded program entitled “Play Street.” During this time appellant assaulted and committed various sex acts upon the six-year-old victim who participated in the program. At trial, as part of his defense, appellant alleged that the victim was delusional and/or hallucinatory. To substantiate this claim he caused a subpoena duces tecum to be issued to the Psychiatric Institute of the Medical College of Eastern Pennsylvania which rendered psychotheraputic treatment to the victim. An in camera inspection of the records was conducted by the trial court which determined appellant’s allegations to be unfounded based upon its review of the treatment records. Appellant argues that the trial court’s refusal to grant defense counsel unlimited access to these records violated his rights to confrontation and compulsory process as guaranteed by Article 1, section 9 of the Pennsylvania Constitution.1

[430]*430Though the constitutionality of the trial court’s ruling has not previously been addressed by this Court under our state constitution, we have had occasion to rule on similar matters. For instance in Commonwealth v. Grayson, 466 Pa. 427, 353 A.2d 428 (1976) where the defense was denied the right to examine pre-trial statements of a prosecution witness for the purpose of cross-examination, this Court stated:

“The defense was entitled to examine the statement in order to have a fair opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses. Whether the statements of the prosecution’s witnesses would have been helpful to the defense is not a question to be determined by the prosecution or by the trial court. They would not be reading the statements with the eyes of a trial advocate engaged in defending a . client. Matters contained in a witness’ statement may appear innocuous to some, but have great significance to counsel viewing the statements from the perspective of an advocate for the accused about to cross-examine a witness.”

Grayson, 466 Pa. at 429, 353 A.2d at 429.

Similarly in Matter of Pittsburgh Action Against Rape, 494 Pa. 15, 428 A.2d 126 (1981), this Court was called upon to determine whether or not to create an absolute privilege for all communications between rape crisis center personnel and persons seeking assistance at the center. This Court held that the rights of an individual accused of rape require that the accused be given an opportunity at least to ascertain what the complainant had previously said. The relief there was limited in that the inspection was to be conducted in camera and statements reflecting counselling were not to be revealed. Interpretations or recollections of the counsellor were not to be made available. Further, improper disclosure or use of the statements was prohibited. 494 Pa. at 29, 428 A.2d at 133.

[431]*431We decided the issue in Commonwealth v. Ritchie, 509 Pa. 357, 502 A.2d 148 (1985) similarly. There the defendant was charged with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, incest and corruption of minors. During trial preparation defense counsel served a subpoena upon The Child Welfare Services (CWS) seeking records involving the complaint. CWS refused and based this refusal upon the confidentiality of the records as mandated by 11 P.S. § 2215.2 The defendant in Ritchie, Id. argued that notwithstanding the confidentiality provision of the Child Protective Services law, the refusal of CWS to permit inspection of their records was a denial of his sixth amendment right to confrontation as guaranteed by the United States Constitution. We held that the defendant was entitled to gain access to the entire file of The Child Welfare Services pertaining to his daughter so that determinations concerning what information might be useful to defense might be properly made by his advocate. Id. We held that the Commonwealth’s interest in maintaining the confidentiality of these records could not override a defendant’s right to confront and cross-examine the witnesses against him. The United States Supreme Court reversed our holding in part in Pennsylvania v. Ritchie, affirmed in part, reversed in part, 480 U.S. 39, 107 S.Ct. 989, 94 L.Ed.2d 40 (1987).

Our decision in Ritchie, supra was based upon our view of how the United States Supreme Court would balance a defendant’s sixth amendment right to confrontation under the federal constitution against a victim’s competing statutorily protected right to maintain the confidentiality of records of assault in the possession of the state. The issue currently before this Court arises not under the federal constitution but rather under our State Constitution and does not involve a request to discover statutorily protected state maintained records but rather a request to produce Psychotherapy records in the possession of a hospital where treatment was administered.

[432]*432While the minimum federal constitutional guarantees are equally applicable to the analogous state constitutional provisions, the state has the power to provide broader standards than those mandated by the federal constitution. Commonwealth v. Sell, 504 Pa. 46, 63, 470 A.2d 457 (1983). See also Prune-Yard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U.S. 74, 80-82, 100 S.Ct. 2035, 2040-41, 64 L.Ed.2d 741 (1980), Oregon v. Hass, 420 U.S. 714, 719, 95 S.Ct. 1215, 1219, 43 L.Ed.2d 570 (1975); Cooper v. California, 386 U.S. 58, 62, 87 S.Ct. 788, 791, 17 L.Ed.2d 730 (1967). Appellant would require that we not only apply our holding in Ritchie to the facts of his case but that we extend it to hold that the confrontation and compulsory process clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution require that appellant’s counsel be given access to the victim’s entire psychotheraputic record.

In Ritchie we determined that the defendant was denied his sixth amendment right to confrontation under the federal constitution when his attorney was denied total access to The Child Welfare Service records.

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Bluebook (online)
567 A.2d 1357, 523 Pa. 427, 1989 Pa. LEXIS 430, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-lloyd-pa-1989.