February 10, 2025
Ohio’s Twelfth District Court of Appeals Upholds Victim’s Right to Privacy
By Chloe Greenawalt, Esq., Ohio Crime Victim Justice Center
Last week, the Ohio Twelfth District Court of Appeals issued a decision upholding a crime victim’s right to be treated with fairness and respect for their safety, dignity, and privacy. At issue in this case was whether the trial court erred when it ordered the release of a crime victim’s confidential medical and mental health records after the defendant issued a subpoena for these records. This case was unique because it was a long fought battle that was appealed twice. The trial court first ordered the release of the victim’s records in 2023. The victim appealed this decision. The Twelfth District remanded the case for the trial court to correct a procedural issue–namely, to conduct a balancing test, as permitted by R.C. 2930.071, which allowed a trial court to balance a victim’s rights and privileges against the constitutional rights of the defendant when determining whether to release a victim’s records. This Ohio Revised Code section was repealed in December 2024.
Once the trial court conducted the balancing test, it held yet again that the victim’s records should be released to defendant because the records were necessary for impeachment, they may aid in showing the defendant’s state of mind at the time of the charged incident, may show causation of the injuries and whether they were self-inflicted, and may be relevant to determining whether the defendant caused the physical harm. The victim again appealed to the Twelfth District Court of Appeals asserting that the defendant did not have any constitutional rights that would outweigh the victim’s rights in this case–namely, her privacy rights under the federal and state constitution and her statutory privileges.
In a unanimous decision, the Twelfth District Court of Appeals upheld the victim’s right to privacy in her medical and mental health records, holding that the trial court abused its discretion when it ordered the release of her records because “the defendant’s constitutional rights were not of sufficient magnitude to outweigh the victim’s statutory and constitutional rights.”
This decision was a victory not only for the victim in this case, but crime victims throughout Ohio. Few communications are as private and sacred as those patients share with their medical or mental health professional. It is upon this confidentiality that many patients rely to make full disclosure of their symptoms in order to receive the best treatment possible. If a defendant is permitted to pierce this veil of confidentiality based on vague assertions that they need these records to impeach a witness or prove their state of mind, that is a fundamental violation of privacy. The Twelfth District recognized the magnitude of this violation of privacy and upheld the victim’s right to keep her records private.
Chloe Greenawalt is a staff attorney at Ohio Crime Victim Justice Center. She graduated from the University of Cincinnati College of Law in May 2021 where she was a fellow for the Ohio Innocence Project and a member of Immigration and Human Rights Law Review.
