The marital communications privilege protects from disclosure information privately disclosed between a married couple in confidence of the marital relationship. A key phrase in this definition is âmarried coupleâ or a state-law equivalent. One criminalâs attempt to silence his girlfriend through a jailhouse marriage proposal backfired in a major way.
The Girlfriend
The FBI arrested Donald J. Peel after he took a disabled female minor on a five-state sojourn that included illegal drugs and sex. The government recorded Peelâs conversations with Nicole Gorski, his so-called girlfriend, conducted while Peel was in jail awaiting trial for transporting a minor with intent to engage in sexual activity.
They Ain’t Got Nothin’
In these conversations, Peel told Gorski that âyou might have the right to marital privilegeâ and urged her to seek a lawyer about securing a Domestic Partnership Declaration under California Family Code § 297-297.5. Peel needed Gorski to fall within the martial communications privilege so that she could refuse to provide trial testimony, because, as Peel said, âwithout you they ainât got nothinâ.â
Peelâs counsel moved under FRE 403 to exclude Peelâs conversations with Gorski about invoking the marital communications privilege. The court rejected this preclusion attempt, ruling that Peelâs effort to orchestrate the suppression of Gorskiâs testimony was relevant to the governmentâs âconsciousness of guiltâ proposition.
Yes, They Do
While courts may exclude evidence of one spouse urging the other spouse to invoke the marital communications privilege, in this case Peel was asking his girlfriend âto marry him to create a privilege that did not already exist.â The court rejected Peelâs arguments and admitted into evidence all of Peelâs conversations.
And without the marital communications privilege, Gorskiâs testimony helped lead to a guilty verdict.  You may read the courtâs opinion here. United States v. Peel, 2014 WL 5817259 (E.D. Cal. Nov. 7, 2014).
No word whether Gorski would have accepted the proposal, but she will now have 10+ years to think about it.