Roman Cath. Archbishop of La v. Super. Ct.

• Decision Date: 25 July 2005
• Docket Number: No. B180696.,No. B177852.,B177852.,B180696.
• Citation: 32 Cal.Rptr.3d 209,131 Cal.App.4th 417
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: The ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF LOS ANGELES, Petitioner, v. SUPERIOR COURT of Los Angeles County, Respondent; The People, Real Party in Interest. Does 1 and 2, Petitioners, v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Respondent; The People, Real Party in Interest.

32 Cal.Rptr.3d 209

131 Cal.App.4th 417

The ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF LOS ANGELES, Petitioner, v. SUPERIOR COURT of Los Angeles County, Respondent;

The People, Real Party in Interest.

Does 1 and 2, Petitioners, v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Respondent;

The People, Real Party in Interest.

No. B177852.

No. B180696.

Court of Appeal, Second District, Division Three.

July 25, 2005.

Hennigan, Bennett & Dorman, J. Michael Hennigan, Donald F. Woods, Jr., and Jeffrey S. Koenig, Los Angeles, for Petitioner The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles.

Law Offices of Guzin & Steier and Donald H. Steier, Los Angeles, for Petitioners Doe 1 and Doe 2.

O'Melveny & Myers and Charles C. Lifland, Los Angeles, for Monsignor Thomas J. Green as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Petitioners.

No appearance for Respondent.

Steve Cooley, District Attorney (Los Angeles), and Lael Rubin, William Hodgman, Brentford J. Ferreira and Patrick D. Moran, Deputy District Attorneys, for Real Party in Interest.

KLEIN, P.J.

INTRODUCTION

This proceeding arises out of a grand jury investigation into allegations that two Roman Catholic priests, petitioners Doe 1 and Doe 2 (sometimes hereafter referred to as the Priests), sexually assaulted children while they worked for petitioner Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles, a Corporation Sole (hereafter referred to as the Archdiocese). In seeking to quash grand jury subpoenas duces tecum, petitioners raise issues that require a balance of the rights of religious belief and practice with the rules of the criminal justice system.

As the California Supreme Court noted in connection with this state's evidentiary privilege for clergy-penitent communications (Evid.Code, §§ 1030-1034), "the statutory privilege must be recognized as basically an explicit accommodation by the secular state to strongly held religious tenets of a large segment of its citizenry." (In re Lifschutz (1970) 2 Cal.3d 415, 428, 85 Cal.Rptr. 829, 467 P.2d 557.) While it is true the right to religious freedom holds a special place in our history and culture, there also must be an accommodation by religious believers and institutions to the rules of civil society, particularly when the state's compelling interest in protecting children is in question. Although the religion clauses of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution "embrace[ ] two concepts, — freedom to believe and freedom to act," the first concept "is absolute but, in the nature of things, the second cannot be. Conduct remains subject to regulation for the protection of society." (Cantwell v. Connecticut (1940) 310 U.S. 296, 303-304, 60 S.Ct. 900, 84 L.Ed. 1213, fn. omitted.)

The Los Angeles County Grand Jury subpoenaed various documents from the Archdiocese which purportedly would allow the grand jury to determine whether to indict the Priests. Petitioners objected to disclosure of the subpoenaed documents, primarily relying on the freedom of religion clauses in the federal and California Constitutions and on California's evidentiary privileges. Some of petitioners' objections were sustained, but the great majority of them were overruled. Petitioners seek to reverse the adverse rulings. With the exception of a single document, we affirm the rulings ordering the subpoenaed materials to be turned over to the grand jury.

PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In June and July 2002, the Los Angeles County Grand Jury served subpoenas duces tecum on the Archdiocese's custodian of records, seeking documents relating to child sexual abuse allegedly committed by certain Roman Catholic priests. Except for routine attorney-client communications, the Archdiocese turned over the requested documents. However, several priests and the Archdiocese immediately filed motions to quash the subpoenas. As a result, none of the documents has been turned over to the grand jury.

The parties to this proceeding, the petitioners, the Priests and the Archdiocese, and the real party in interest, the District Attorney of Los Angeles County, stipulated to the appointment of Retired Judge Thomas Nuss as referee (hereinafter, referee) to resolve substantive issues raised by the motions to quash.

On July 15, 2002, the referee concluded the subpoenas were not defective for failing to meet the affidavit requirements set forth in Code of Civil Procedure sections 1985, subdivision (b) (affidavit shall be served with subpoena duces tecum showing good cause and materiality) and 1987.5 (service of subpoena duces tecum is invalid without affidavit).

On July 29, 2002, petitioners sought a writ of mandate from this court vacating the referee's order denying their motions to quash. We issued an order to show cause. After briefing and oral argument, we held a California grand jury has the power to issue a subpoena duces tecum and that such a subpoena does not require a good cause affidavit. (M.B. v. Superior Court (2002) 103 Cal.App.4th 1384, 127 Cal.Rptr.2d 454.)¹

On June 25, 2004, the referee quashed all the grand jury subpoenas in response to the United States Supreme Court's decision in Stogner v. California (2003) 539 U.S. 607, 123 S.Ct. 2446, 156 L.Ed.2d 544, which held California's newly enacted statute of limitations for child molestation was unconstitutional when used to revive time-barred prosecutions. However, the referee granted the People leave to serve new subpoenas requesting the identical documents on the assurance and subsequent showing the People were investigating credible, prosecutable claims against named targets.

On June 30, 2004, the People served the two grand jury subpoenas, one for Doe 1 and one for Doe 2, at issue in this writ proceeding.

On July 9, 2004, Does 1 and 2 moved to quash the new subpoenas. The Archdiocese followed with its own motion to quash.

On September 7, 2004, the referee issued a decision which substantially rejected petitioners' motions to quash. Out of the approximately 285 subpoenaed documents challenged by petitioners below, the referee sustained 53 objections and ordered the remaining documents turned over to the grand jury. Of the 53 sustained objections, one was based on the attorney-client privilege (Evid.Code, § 954), two were based on the clergy-penitent privilege (Evid.Code, §§ 1033-1034), and 50 were based on the physician-patient privilege (Evid.Code, § 1014). The referee stayed disclosure of the documents to enable the parties to seek review.

Thereafter, the Archdiocese filed a petition for writ of mandate in this court seeking to prevent disclosure of 15 documents the referee had ruled could go to the grand jury. The Priests filed their own petition for writ of mandate asking this court to prevent the disclosure of any documents to the grand jury. The petitions were consolidated, an order to show cause was issued, production of documents was stayed, and briefing was obtained from the parties.

An amicus curiae brief from Monsignor Thomas Green, a professor of canon law, was filed in support of petitioners' claims.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

1. Petitioners' claim the subpoenaed documents cannot be disclosed to grand jury.

Petitioners contend the referee erred in ruling the subpoenaed documents should be disclosed to the grand jury because compliance with the subpoenas would violate constitutional and statutory rules. Petitioners assert a Catholic bishop has a religious obligation to care for the physical, emotional and spiritual well-being of the priests within his diocese. Petitioners argue all the communications arising out of this obligation, including communications with the accused priests and the psychotherapists who treat them, are protected from disclosure by the constitutional right to freedom of religion and by California's psychotherapist-patient and clergy-penitent evidentiary privileges. In support of these claims, petitioners submitted evidentiary declarations, which were opposed by declarations filed by the District Attorney.

2. Petitioners' evidentiary declarations; their reliance on the church's "formation of clergy" doctrine.

In declarations supporting its motion to quash, the Archdiocese asserted that according to Roman Catholic doctrine, bishops are the direct successors of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ.² Under the church's formation of clergy doctrine, a bishop is charged with the responsibility of sanctifying his priests, and is obligated to "care for and treat any emotional, physical, or spiritual problem a priest may be experiencing."³ In carrying out this obligation, a bishop "may establish detailed boundaries for his priests concerning chastity" and "pass judgment in particular cases concerning the observance of this obligation. The bishop is obliged to intervene and judge inappropriate conduct of any priest and to impose restrictions and penalties as appropriate in his moral judgment." The Archdiocese argued these tasks require "open communications between the bishop and his priests."

A bishop "is permitted to appoint Episcopal vicars. An Episcopal vicar has the same power as a Bishop in the specific type of activity for which he is appointed." The Archbishop in Los Angeles, Cardinal Mahony, has appointed such a vicar, called the Vicar for Clergy, who is obligated to care for the "emotional, physical, psychological and spiritual lives" of the archdiocesan priests. Monsignor Craig Cox, who is both a canon lawyer and the Vicar for Clergy, declared Cardinal Mahony had established policies for the Archdiocese under which accusations of clerical sexual misconduct immediately are investigated. "The involved priest is confronted and is encouraged to discuss whatever problems he is experiencing regarding chastity." "Msgr. Cox states `Based on the fundamental religious relationship between the bishop and his priest, the priest is encouraged to communicate his deepest psychological and sexual issue[s], to undergo psychiatric evaluation and treatment, and to share the results of this therapy with the Vicar and the Bishop. ...