## Facts

- Colorado charged Robert R. Turner, Jr. with domestic-violence assault and harassment based on allegations involving his girlfriend, M.P.
- Defense counsel learned M.P. sought services from a domestic-violence victim-advocacy organization.
- The defense served subpoenas duces tecum on the advocacy organization seeking “any and all” records, notes, and files regarding assistance provided to M.P. relating to reports of abuse.
- The organization refused, asserting the victim-advocate privilege under Colo. Rev. Stat. § 13-90-107.
- The defense moved to compel production, arguing the privilege covered only victim “communications,” not records describing the advocate’s “assistance.”
- The trial court ordered the organization to produce a broad outline of assistance provided to M.P.
- The organization sought review in an original proceeding under C.A.R. 21.

## Issues

1. Whether the victim-advocate privilege in Colo. Rev. Stat. § 13-90-107 covers not only direct victim communications, but also advocacy records documenting assistance that would reveal or reflect those communications.
2. Whether the defendant showed the victim waived the privilege expressly or by implication.
3. Whether applying the privilege to bar discovery of those records violates the defendant’s constitutional rights to compulsory process and cross-examination.

## Decision

- The Colorado Supreme Court made the rule to show cause absolute and quashed the trial court’s discovery order.
- The court held the victim-advocate privilege applies to records of assistance when those records are part of, or necessarily reveal or reflect, the victim’s communications to the advocate.
- The court held the defendant bears the burden to prove waiver, and Turner did not establish express or implied waiver by the victim.
- The court rejected the argument that this construction of the privilege violated the defendant’s rights to compulsory process and cross-examination.

## Legal Principles

- Under Colo. Rev. Stat. § 13-90-107, “any communication” protected by the victim-advocate privilege includes advocacy records of assistance that would reveal or reflect the substance of the victim’s communications.
- The privilege belongs to the victim; an advocate’s file is protected absent a victim’s valid express or implied waiver.
- The defendant bears the burden of demonstrating waiver of the victim-advocate privilege.
- Enforcing a legislatively created evidentiary privilege to restrict discovery does not, by itself, violate a defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights to compulsory process or cross-examination.

## Conclusion

The court held that the victim-advocate privilege broadly protects both victim communications and advocacy records of assistance that reflect those communications; because no waiver was shown and the privilege’s enforcement was constitutionally permissible, the compelled disclosure order was vacated.


People v. Turner, 109 P.3d 639 (Colo. 2005)