Care and Protection of M.C.

Summary

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court considers requests by a parent and the Commonwealth for access to impounded records from a Juvenile Court care and protection proceeding in connection with related criminal prosecutions. The court holds that the requesting party bears the burden of demonstrating good cause under Rule 7 of the Uniform Rules on Impoundment Procedure, and that disclosure does not establish admissibility in a later criminal proceeding. It further concludes that participation in the care and protection proceeding does not waive the privilege against self-incrimination in a subsequent criminal case, that prior parental testimony is inadmissible there, and that the psychotherapist-patient privilege is case-specific.

Holdings

1. When a party or the Commonwealth seeks access to impounded records of a Juvenile Court care and protection proceeding, the requesting party bears the burden of demonstrating good cause for release under Rule 7 of the Uniform Rules on Impoundment Procedure.
2. A finding that impounded care and protection records should be released for limited, confidential review does not establish that the records are admissible in a later criminal proceeding.
3. A parent's testimony in a care and protection or termination-of-parental-rights proceeding does not waive the privilege against self-incrimination in a subsequent criminal proceeding.
4. A parent's testimony from a care and protection proceeding ordinarily is not admissible in a subsequent criminal proceeding.
5. The patient-psychotherapist privilege is case-specific; a parent's disclosure of psychotherapist communications in a care and protection proceeding does not automatically waive the privilege in a later criminal trial.
6. The third-party-document discovery procedures described in Commonwealth v. Dwyer do not govern requests for impounded Juvenile Court records that are in the court's possession.

Questions Presented

1. What standard and burden govern requests by a party or the Commonwealth for release of impounded Juvenile Court records from a care and protection proceeding?
2. Whether a parent's disclosure of evidence or testimony in a care and protection proceeding waives the constitutional privilege against self-incrimination in a later criminal proceeding.
3. Whether testimony from a care and protection proceeding is admissible in a subsequent criminal proceeding.
4. Whether a parent's waiver of the statutory patient-psychotherapist privilege in a care and protection proceeding extends to a later criminal proceeding.
5. Whether the third-party-document discovery procedures of Commonwealth v. Dwyer and Mass. R. Crim. P. 17 apply to impounded Juvenile Court records.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded