Vela

In these consolidated writ proceedings we are presented with the novel question of whether a city may shield from production in a criminal prosecution, under the attorney-client privilege, those statements made by its police officers to an investigating team organized by the city’s police department to gather and preserve evidence for use by the city attorney in the defense of a possible future civil action. We conclude, under the facts here presented, that adherence to the statutory privilege protecting client privacy must give way to pretrial access when it deprives a defendant of his constitutional rights of confrontation and cross-examination. This is an issue which the trial court can resolve by use of an in camera hearing.

Factual and Procedural Background

While these cases come to us on different procedural paths, they both involve the effort by the City of Culver City (City) to protect statements given by its police officers who were involved in shooting incidents with criminal defendants being prosecuted for their participation in those same events. The statements at issue were made to members of the SIT organized and controlled by the City’s chief of police…