O'CONNELL v. Cowan

332 S.W.3d 34, 2010 Ky. LEXIS 304, 2010 WL 2016889
CourtKentucky Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 16, 2010
Docket2009-SC-000596-MR
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 332 S.W.3d 34 (O'CONNELL v. Cowan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Kentucky Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
O'CONNELL v. Cowan, 332 S.W.3d 34, 2010 Ky. LEXIS 304, 2010 WL 2016889 (Ky. 2010).

Opinions

MEMORANDUM OPINION OF THE COURT

This is an appeal from an opinion and order of the Court of Appeals denying a petition for a writ to prohibit the trial court from enforcing its order requiring a former prosecutor to turn over her litigation file and to be deposed by a former defendant she prosecuted in district court. Because the trial court did not evaluate the request for discovery of the prosecutor’s opinion work product under the heightened compelling need standard, we reverse the order denying the writ and remand to the Court of Appeals for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

In 2005, attorney Bruce Alan Brightwell was charged with intimidating a participant in the legal process, terroristic threatening, and harassing communications in the Jefferson District Court. These charges stemmed, at least in part, from certain threatening email and instant messages sent to the alleged victims from Brightwell’s computer. In March 2005, Jeffersontown Police Department Detective Roscoe Scott seized Brightwell’s computers pursuant to a search warrant and delivered them to a forensic computer expert with the Louisville Metro Police Department. On July 21, 2005, an additional charge of tampering with physical evidence was filed against Brightwell. The basis of the new charge was that Brightwell had tampered with his computer so as to hide or otherwise destroy evidence of the mes[37]*37sages in question. At the probable cause hearing, Louisville Metro Police Department Detective Craig, a computer expert, testified that he found no evidence of tampering in the computers he examined. On motion of the Commonwealth, the district court thereafter dismissed the tampering with physical evidence charge for lack of probable cause.

Brightwell ultimately entered an Alford,1 plea to a charge of harassing communications and entered into a diversion agreement with the Commonwealth. Subsequently, Brightwell filed a civil action against Detective Roscoe Scott and the City of Jeffersontown, alleging, among other claims, abuse of process, malicious prosecution, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and a violation of 42 U.S.C. Section 1983. The complaint alleged that Scott recommended to Shelley Santry, assistant Jefferson County Attorney, that she file the tampering with physical evidence charge even though there was no evidence to support it. Neither Santry nor the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office, Jefferson County, or the Commonwealth of Kentucky were named defendants in the civil suit brought by Brightwell.

In his answer and in discovery responses, Scott denied the allegation that he recommended that the tampering charge be brought against Brightwell. In his interrogatory responses, he identified Santry as a witness who could support his denial and generally identified the Jefferson County Attorney’s office as the place where documents and persons with knowledge to support his denial could be found. Thereafter, Brightwell filed a subpoena duces tecum and ad testificandum to San-try. The subpoena commanded Santry to appear at a deposition to produce documents that, according to Santry, essentially comprise her entire litigation file on Brightwell’s prosecution.

The office of the Jefferson County Attorney, on behalf of Santry, responded with a motion to quash the subpoena. Following the filing of the motion to quash, the parties and the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office reached an agreement whereby Santry would answer interrogatories relating solely to communications between Santry and Scott and that Santry would also produce documents provided to her by Scott. The agreement stated that Santry reserved the right to object on work product grounds.

After receiving Santry’s answers to interrogatories, Brightwell filed a motion for a hearing on the motion to quash the subpoena, arguing that Santry’s responses to his interrogatories were inconclusive. In her responses to interrogatories that directed her to identify those “oral communications” from Scott that led her to file the tampering with physical evidence charge, Santry replied that “[rjespondent states that she recalls having conversations with Scott, but cannot recall the specifics of those conversations.” As to the documents she was to provide, Santry maintained that she produced all written communications from Scott that were contained in her litigation file. Brightwell argued to the trial court that he needed to take Santry’s deposition and review other documents withheld under claim of privilege in an effort to refresh Santry’s recollection or to determine exactly what her recollection was. The Jefferson County Attorney’s office contended that information sought from Santry was privileged as work product under Kentucky Rules of Civil Procedure (CR) 26.02(3)(a), and thus not subject to disclosure.

[38]*38In an opinion and order entered on August 4, 2008, the trial court ruled that the work product privilege in CR 26.02(3)(a) did not apply to the information sought from Santry in this case because neither Santry nor the county attorney’s office was a party to the civil litigation commenced by Brightwell. Alternatively, the trial court found that even if the work product privilege applied here, Brightwell was, nevertheless, entitled to obtain the information from Santry because he made the required showing under CR 26.02(3)(a) that he was in ■ substantial need of the information and was unable to obtain the substantial equivalent of the information by other means. The trial court concluded, “Thus, [Brightwell] is left with no other alternative than to take Santry’s deposition and obtain her testimony and whatever relevant documents in her litigation file that she has yet to disclose.” The court then compelled Santry to appear for deposition by Brightwell and ordered her to provide Brightwell with “all documents generated while the underlying prosecution of Brightwell was pending, which in any manner related to the decision to charge Brightwell with Tampering with Physical Evidence, including but not limited to all reports, memos, correspondence, or notes which were relied upon in making that charge.”

The Jefferson County Attorney and San-try thereafter filed a petition for a writ of prohibition in the Court of Appeals seeking to prohibit the trial court from enforcing the discovery order against Santry. On August 18, 2009, the Court of Appeals entered its opinion and order denying the petition. Citing Doubleday v. Ruh, 149 F.R.D. 601 (E.D.Cal.1993), the Court of Appeals agreed with the trial court that the work product privilege in CR 26.02(3)(a) did not apply to Santry’s litigation file on Brightwell’s prosecution and information regarding the prosecution because the criminal proceeding had been terminated, and neither Santry nor the Jefferson County Attorney’s office was a party to the subsequent civil action. The Court of Appeals further reasoned:

The best evidence to determine the truth of Scott’s [sic] would be to determine the affect [sic] Scott had on San-try’s decision to prosecute Brightwell for Tampering with Physical Evidence. Thus, given the fact that the mental impressions and thought processes developed by Santry during the course of the unsuccessful criminal prosecution will determine the truth or falsity of Scott’s defense in the subsequent civil proceeding, the Jefferson County Attorneys’ Office failed to meet its burden that the information possessed by San-try is protected under the work product privilege.

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Bluebook (online)
332 S.W.3d 34, 2010 Ky. LEXIS 304, 2010 WL 2016889, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oconnell-v-cowan-ky-2010.